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- GA: Raising particularity in half of one sentence of argument isn’t a presentation of the issue
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- GA: No case says SW required to ask for cell phone password
- VA: Body cam video of valid arrest would not be suppressed
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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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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)
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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
CA9: SW for one CP message board user’s email account led to finding CP for defendant; no 4A violation
A search warrant was obtained for the email account of a user of the Dark Moon messaging board for users of child pornography. After searching that one, officers got permission to use the email account. That did not lead to … Continue reading
WaPo: How tech sleuths cracked the mysterious code that turns your printer into a spying tool
WaPo: How tech sleuths cracked the mysterious code that turns your printer into a spying tool by Derek Hawkins:
TX: Dorm RA couldn’t consent to police entry to dorm room to search for drugs
An RA in a college dorm searched defendant’s room and found drugs. The police were called and they entered the room and seized the drugs. There is no dorm room exception to the Fourth Amendment. This is not the same … Continue reading
CA6: Realtime cell phone GPS tracking of a fugitive for 7+ hours was not a “search”
Realtime cell phone GPS tracking of a fugitive for 7+ hours was not a “search” under the Fourth Amendment, following United States v. Skinner, 690 F.3d 772, 781 (6th Cir. 2012). United States v. Riley, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 9900 … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Pole camera surveillance of curtilage and front of building for a year and 5 weeks wasn’t unreasonable
Defendant had a building that burned, and he moved out, conducting clean up and repairs. He was still considered by the FBI to be running drugs from there. The FBI installed a pole camera across the street that operated from … Continue reading
OH5: Def didn’t shield his grow operation from flyover; consent to police to search voluntary
Defendant had a marijuana grown at his rural property, and the roof was partially open exposing the grow. Police flying over in a helicopter saw it, gave the GPS coordinates to officers on the ground who came to the house … Continue reading
PA: Once SW issues for clothes and DNA removed, no further warrant needed for DNA testing
DNA lawfully seized from defendant’s clothes did not require a separate warrant to test it. Defendant doesn’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy in his victim’s DNA on him. Once DNA is lawfully taken, there is no longer any reasonable … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Viewing def’s Facebook page isn’t a 4A violation
Viewing defendant’s public Facebook is [hardly] a Fourth Amendment or Stored Communications Act claim. United States v. Khan, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82493 (N.D. Ill. May 31, 2017):
M.D.Fla.: Unauthorized driver of rented car with suspended DL had no REP in car even if driving with permission of renter
Defendant had a subjective reasonable expectation of privacy in a rental vehicle he was driving with permission of the renter and potentially the implicit permission of the rental company because he was seen in it by them. [Whether they knew … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Undercover officers entering public areas of a strip club as customers not a search
First undercover officers and then other officers entered plaintiff’s strip club to investigate alleged misdeeds inside. No warrant was needed under Macon because the parts of the club entered by the officers were open to the customers. ABECE Operating v. … Continue reading
MI: Taking ptf’s photo and prints after a valid arrest did not violate 4A
The taking of plaintiff’s photograph and fingerprints after an apparently valid arrest was not a clearly established violation of the Fourth Amendment where he was innocent of a crime. Plaintiff did not contest his arrest, but he contended that the … Continue reading
FL1: No REP in bloody clothes of shooting victim who came to ER: they were in plain view
Defendant was shot, and he showed up at an emergency room claiming he was the victim of a robbery. His bloody clothes were removed from him and bagged and on the floor. A police officer noticed the clothes and considered … Continue reading
CA2: Unlicensed driver of rental car rented by another had no standing in car
The court does not have to decide whether the unauthorized driver of a rental car as to the rental contract has standing, despite being loaned the car by the renter, noting differing authorities; because defendant was also an unlicensed driver … Continue reading
NY: No REP in LPN on any vehicle; it can be run at any time for any reason
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in the LPN on a vehicle, and it can be run at anytime for any reason: “To ensure the safety of our roads, a police officer may run a license plate number through … Continue reading
D.Me.: Putting an iPhone into airplane mode was not a violation of any REP
Putting a seized iPhone into “airplane mode” until a search warrant could be issued was not a search or seizure, and it did not offend a privacy interest. What officers did was contemplated by Riley. United States v. Cain, 2017 … Continue reading
WaPo: The Fourth Amendment and “no trespassing” signs
WaPo: The Fourth Amendment and “no trespassing” signs by Orin Kerr:
D.Neb.: There is no REP in jail calls
Defendant’s jail calls were known by him to be subject to monitoring, and he had no reasonable expectation of privacy in them. There was probable cause for the search warrant for defendant’s email, giving the magistrate’s finding the due deference … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Owner of housing rental units has no REP in the property during a tenancy from housing inspection
A housing rental partnership has standing to sue under the Fourth Amendment for rental inspection under a city ordinance because of collateral consequences to them. The inspections only occur when they are rented. The complaint fails on the merits, however, … Continue reading
Security Info Watch: Proliferation of smart home tech creates privacy conundrum
Security Info Watch: Proliferation of smart home tech creates privacy conundrum by Adrienne Ehrhardt:
MO: Using software to sort through publicly available information does not violate any REP
The use of software to sort through publicly available information does not violate any reasonable expectation of privacy. Shumate v. State, 2017 Mo. App. LEXIS 227 (March 28, 2017).* Playpen warrant sustained. United States v. Gaver, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading