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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com
Search and Seizure (6th ed. 2025)
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-26,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 600,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 50,000 posts since 2003 (29,000 on WordPress as of 12/31/25) -
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Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links -
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (2012)
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"If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. It isn't, and they don't."
—Me -
"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."
–Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw), Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things (1868) (erroneously attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson, among others) -
“I am still learning.”
—Domenico Giuntalodi (but misattributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti (common phrase throughout 1500's)). -
"Love work; hate mastery over others; and avoid intimacy with the government."
—Shemaya, in the Thalmud -
"It is a pleasant world we live in, sir, a very pleasant world. There are bad people in it, Mr. Richard, but if there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers."
—Charles Dickens, “The Old Curiosity Shop ... With a Frontispiece. From a Painting by Geo. Cattermole, Etc.” 255 (1848) -
"A system of law that not only makes certain conduct criminal, but also lays down rules for the conduct of the authorities, often becomes complex in its application to individual cases, and will from time to time produce imperfect results, especially if one's attention is confined to the particular case at bar. Some criminals do go free because of the necessity of keeping government and its servants in their place. That is one of the costs of having and enforcing a Bill of Rights. This country is built on the assumption that the cost is worth paying, and that in the long run we are all both freer and safer if the Constitution is strictly enforced."
—Williams v. Nix, 700 F. 2d 1164, 1173 (8th Cir. 1983) (Richard Sheppard Arnold, J.), rev'd Nix v. Williams, 467 US. 431 (1984). -
"The criminal goes free, if he must, but it is the law that sets him free. Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence."
—Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 659 (1961). -
"Any costs the exclusionary rule are costs imposed directly by the Fourth Amendment."
—Yale Kamisar, 86 Mich.L.Rev. 1, 36 n. 151 (1987). -
"There have been powerful hydraulic pressures throughout our history that bear heavily on the Court to water down constitutional guarantees and give the police the upper hand. That hydraulic pressure has probably never been greater than it is today."
— Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 39 (1968) (Douglas, J., dissenting). -
"The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property."
—Entick v. Carrington, 19 How.St.Tr. 1029, 1066, 95 Eng. Rep. 807 (C.P. 1765) -
"It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people. And so, while we are concerned here with a shabby defrauder, we must deal with his case in the context of what are really the great themes expressed by the Fourth Amendment."
—United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 69 (1950) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting) -
"The course of true law pertaining to searches and seizures, as enunciated here, has not–to put it mildly–run smooth."
—Chapman v. United States, 365 U.S. 610, 618 (1961) (Frankfurter, J., concurring). -
"A search is a search, even if it happens to disclose nothing but the bottom of a turntable."
—Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 325 (1987) -
"For the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. ... But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected."
—Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351 (1967) -
“Experience should teach us to be most on guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded
rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
—United States v. Olmstead, 277 U.S. 438, 479 (1925) (Brandeis, J., dissenting)
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“Liberty—the freedom from unwarranted intrusion by government—is as easily lost through insistent nibbles by government officials who seek to do their jobs too well as by those whose purpose it is to oppress; the piranha can be as deadly as the shark.”
—United States v. $124,570, 873 F.2d 1240, 1246 (9th Cir. 1989) -
"You can't always get what you want / But if you try sometimes / You just might find / You get what you need."
—Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, Let it Bleed (album, 1969) -
"In Germany, they first came for the communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for
the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came
for me–and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."
—Martin Niemöller (1945) [he served seven years in a concentration camp] -
“Children grow up thinking the adult world is ordered, rational, fit for purpose. It’s crap. Becoming a man is realising that it’s all rotten. Realising how to celebrate that rottenness, that’s freedom.”
– John le Carré, The Night Manager (1993), line by Richard Roper -
"The point of the Fourth Amendment, which often is not grasped by zealous officers, is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime."
—Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948) -
The book was dedicated in the first (1982) and sixth (2025) editions to Justin William Hall (1975-2025). He was three when this project started in 1978.
Website design by Wally Waller, Colorado Springs. 
Category Archives: Reasonable expectation of privacy
D.Ariz.: Long-term pole camera surveillance over the fence surrounding defendant’s junkyard violated his REP
Long-term pole camera surveillance over the fence surrounding defendant’s junkyard violated his reasonable expectation of privacy where the average person couldn’t see over the fence merely walking by. The court differentiates the flyover cases because long-term video surveillance is unusual … Continue reading
MN: 4A claim can’t be brought for first time in post-conviction proceeding
Defendant’s post-conviction claim that the search violated the Fourth Amendment was waived for post-conviction purposes because he had to file it in the trial court before his case concluded. Fox v. State, 2018 Minn. LEXIS 308 (June 13, 2018). The … Continue reading
MA: Removing paint chips off a car under the automobile exception was reasonable
There was probable cause that defendant’s car was involved in a shooting such that its stop and search was reasonable under the automobile exception. That included removing paint chips from it when it had been removed to the police station. … Continue reading
NYTimes: Can 30,000 Cameras Help Solve Chicago’s Crime Problem?
NYTimes: Can 30,000 Cameras Help Solve Chicago’s Crime Problem? By Timothy Williams Armed with advanced gadgets and mapping, officers can get to crime scenes “in time to see the guy still shooting.” But what does it mean for residents’ privacy? … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: Stop for jaywalking in high crime area didn’t provide RS to detain to ask about drugs; removing key fob from pocket was 4A violation
Reasonable suspicion for jaywalking didn’t permit questioning about drugs just because defendant was in a high crime area. The use of defendant’s key fob in his pocket violated the Fourth Amendment, following United States v. Craddock, 841 F.3d 756, 760 … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Def was essentially and admittedly an “innocent bystander” at the place searched and had no standing
This defendant had no standing in the condo that was searched under a search warrant. He produced nothing to show that he had any connection to the property or was a guest with a connection to the premises, even an … Continue reading
Daily Beast: Justices Thomas and Gorsuch Just Hinted They Would End Privacy as We Know It
Daily Beast: Justices Thomas and Gorsuch Just Hinted They Would End Privacy as We Know It by Jay Michaelson: President Trump’s addition to the Supreme Court sides with the bench’s ‘originalist’—and it has terrifying implications for your rights. Because privacy … Continue reading
SCOTUS: The driver of a rental car not on the contract may have a REP in the car
The driver of a rental car not listed on the contract may have a reasonable exception of privacy in the car Byrd v. United States, 2018 U.S. LEXIS 2803 (May 14, 2018). Syllabus:
W.D.Tex.: Removal of def’s key fob to press the buttons to locate car was a search that violated a REP in def’s pants pocket
The removal of defendant’s key fob from his pocket to locate his car violated a reasonable expectation of privacy and required suppression of the identity of his car. United States v. Fennell, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77041 (W.D. Tex, May … Continue reading
NY1: REP in a bathroom with door closed but unlocked
A person in a bathroom without a lock on the door with the door shut has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Police opening the door violated that expectation. People v. Vinson, 2018 NY Slip Op 03437, 2018 N.Y. App. Div. … Continue reading
CA11: Interrupted residential burglary is exigency for police entry and search
“Police officers interrupt what they reasonably believe to be a residential burglary and detain two suspects just outside the house. Having done so, can the officers thereafter lawfully enter the home—without a warrant, and without further suspicion of wrongdoing—to briefly … Continue reading
Or: Officers didn’t violate def’s privacy by looking under bathroom stall door to see him masturbating
Officers did not violate defendant’s privacy rights in looking under the door from 5′ away to see that he was masturbating and ordering him out. The officers’ look violated no “social norms or [did it] significantly impair defendant’s interest in … Continue reading
MO: Recording def’s conversation with attorney in police station interview room violated 6A and privilege; mandamus granted against unsealing
Defendant’s attorney met him at the police station to confer, and they put them in an interview room which recorded their meeting. The trial court appointed a special master to review it. The recording violated defendant’s attorney-client privilege and right … Continue reading
WaPo: Va. Supreme Court revives challenge to police storage of license plate reader data
WaPo: Va. Supreme Court revives challenge to police storage of license plate reader data by Tom Jackman:
AL: There is no REP in a LPN on a vehicle
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a license plate, and the Fourth Amendment doesn’t prohibit running the tags for any reason. State v. Abrams, 2018 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 24 (Apr. 27, 2018). The government obtained internet routing … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Drug testing school teachers violated 4A
Drug testing of some school teachers in the District of Columbia violated the reasonable expectation of privacy and didn’t serve government interests. There was no indication one group of teachers (really small kids) even deserved to be included for a … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Lyft drivers didn’t state a claim for invasion of privacy from taking of geolocation data that was shared on an app
Plaintiff Lyft drivers sued Uber for invasion of privacy and other claims. Plaintiff did not state an invasion of privacy claim from using an app on their phone that tracked them. He didn’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy in … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Alleged search of a public computer in a library for ptf’s usage didn’t violate any REP
Alleged search of a public computer in a college library for information about plaintiff’s use of it doesn’t violate any reasonable expectation of privacy. Berry v. Yosemite Cmty. College Dist., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 64732 (E.D. Cal. Apr. 17, 2018). … Continue reading
Cal.-LA Cty: REP of apartment tenants barred discovery against them as witnesses
Tenants of an apartment complex had a reasonable expectation of privacy from being brought into a discovery dispute. They had a right not to have their privacy invaded. Castillo v. LA Props. Heffesse LLC, 2018 Cal. Super. LEXIS 119 (Super. … Continue reading
IL: Hospital employee seizing def’s clothing from private room at police request violated 4A
Police enlisting a hospital employee to enter defendant’s hospital room to take his clothing violated his reasonable expectation of privacy and made the employee a police agent. The seizure violated the Fourth Amendment. People v. Gill, 2018 IL App (3d) … Continue reading