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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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General (many free):
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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
OR: Horse owner didn’t lose privacy interest in horses being cared for by another on other’s property
Third-party property owners who were boarding defendant’s horses had the actual authority to consent to the sheriff’s entry onto their properties. Defendant didn’t have any authority to exclude the owners from particular parts of the properties where her horses stayed. … Continue reading
W.D.Ark.: No QI for officer extending a traffic stop for a drug dog w/o RS
Officer was not entitled to qualified immunity for allegedly extending a traffic stop without reasonable suspicion just to conduct a dog sniff. Gover v. Helder, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117417 (W.D.Ark. July 29, 2016). Defendant’s call from book-in jail phone … Continue reading
AlterNet: Why Baltimore’s Covert Spy Plane Program Is a Major Battleground for Privacy and Free Speech
AlterNet: Why Baltimore’s Covert Spy Plane Program Is a Major Battleground for Privacy and Free Speech by Carl Messineo: Just because our privacy can be violated does not mean we should expect or tolerate such violations.
cato.org: ‘Pre-Search’ Is Coming to U.S. Policing
cato.org: ‘Pre-Search’ Is Coming to U.S. Policing by Jim Harper: News that the city of Baltimore has been under surreptitious, mass-scale camera surveillance will have ramifications across the criminal justice world. When it comes to constitutional criminal procedure, privacy, and … Continue reading
W.D.La.: Postal workers have no REP in containers in postal buildings
Postal worker who left personal stuff in an unlocked locker had no reasonable expectation of privacy in it. Postal workers knew that they were subjected to searches of their belongings and containers on postal service property. United States v. Cluse, … Continue reading
CA7: No REP in IP address because it is broadcast
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in the IP address one is using because it’s broadcast far and wide. It is a mere business record under the third party doctrine, and Jones doesn’t alter the third party doctrine. United … Continue reading
VI: No REP in a bag on ground outside an apt building
Defendant’s apartment was subjected to a search warrant, and defendant argued that a Crown Royal bag outside on the ground was outside the scope of the warrant and couldn’t be seized. The court applies Dunn and the curtilage analysis to … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Conversations outside courthouse were entitled to REP
Surreptitious recordings outside the San Mateo courthouse of persons talking amongst themselves were entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy because they talked such that others could not overhear them except with planted recording devices. United States v. Giraudo, 2016 … Continue reading
The Recorder: Breyer: Courthouse Bugs Violate Fourth Amendment
The Recorder: Breyer: Courthouse Bugs Violate Fourth Amendment by Ross Todd: SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge has barred prosecutors from introducing evidence picked up by recording devices planted outside the San Mateo County courthouse without a warrant. In a … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: No REP in a cell phone call made in back of patrol car caught on dashcam
Defendant’s stop was valid, and so was the ultimate inventory of the car under Bertine. Defendant was in the back of a police car, and he called his grandfather and the audio was picked up on the dashcam video where … Continue reading
OR: Stuff left in a crashed and abandoned stolen truck had no REP
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in containers he left fleeing from a stolen truck. State v. Stubblefield, 279 Ore. App. 483, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 928 (July 20, 2016). The officer smelled burnt marijuana during his stop of … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Listening devices in a public place overcame any reasonable expectation of privacy; 1984 was not just a book — it’s here
The FBI planted recording devices outside two courthouses in Northern California to catch conversations on the street between their targets. The devices were planted in a light fixture, a bus stop, and on a parked vehicle. The court finds no … Continue reading
ND: Motel guest’s arrest for crime on premises against employee resulted in eviction and lawful room search
Defendant was arrested at a motel for some unspecified crime against an employee and taken away. Management then evicted him and had the police come and remove his stuff. While inventorying, they found drug paraphernalia. Then they did a dog … Continue reading
CA1: Fictitious name of trade assn in mail fraud scam left def with no REP in mail
Defendant created a fictitious trade association and sent out bills, getting many checks back from thousands he mailed out. He had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the envelopes that he had not yet received because of the fictitious names. … Continue reading
CADC: When the govt learns heroin dealers’ pattern for pick up and delivery, further acts matching the pattern are probable cause
Defendants were known heroin dealers, and they followed a pattern in travel. On the trip that resulted in their arrest, GPS data and cell site location information put them together following the same pattern, and that was reasonable suspicion. United … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: No REP in bloody tissue left in police dept bathroom
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in a bloody tissue left in a men’s bathroom at the Buffalo police station. United States v. Green, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87388 (W.D.N.Y. July 6, 2016). Defendants’ vehicle was stopped as it … Continue reading
D.S.D.: No REP on couch in living room of another where def slept; owner could consent
Defendant slept on the couch of another, and the other had to walk by it to his own bedroom. He could consent to the search of the couch even though it was defendant’s bed. United States v. Zastrow, 2016 U.S. … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Shipping a package under an alias means no REP in it to challenge search
Defendant shipped a package from a UPS store in San Bernardino CA to Houma LA. His name wasn’t on the package as the sender or the recipient, so he didn’t have standing to challenge the search of the package. United … Continue reading
HI: Four flyovers of def’s house violated curtilage and REP under state constitution
Four police flyovers of defendant’s house, one at 420′, was not a search under the Fourth Amendment, but it was unreasonable under the Hawai’i Constitution. 20-25 marijuana plants were seen in the flyover. Driving by the residence, however, no plants … Continue reading
D.S.D.: Trash bags were about as close to house as street; no REP
Defendant has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his trash bags. There were close to house, but they were as close to the street, and they were ready for collection. United States v. Thompson, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73035 (D.S.D. … Continue reading