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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
OH9: No standing in a package of drugs shipped to house in boyfriend’s name
A package containing cocaine was shipped to defendant’s house in the name of her boyfriend. She had no standing in the package because her name wasn’t on it. State v. Padilla, 2015-Ohio-4220, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 4112 (9th Dist. Oct. … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Burner phone and being from town of Sinaloa Drug Cartel were factors in reasonable suspicion
“Deputy Jimerson is trained in drug interdiction and has previously testified as an expert witness on interdiction. During the stop, he saw the defendants were speaking on Tracfones when he approached the car, which he knows to be commonly used … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Robert Durst case: One does not lose REP in a hotel room by registering under an alias
Robert Durst was believed to be on the run after the HBO series “The Jinx,” where he allegedly admitted a connection to a 10 year old homicide in Los Angeles. He was found by the FBI in the Marriott in … Continue reading
D.Conn.: Police entry into public bar area clearly within Fourth Amendment; customers have no right to have sex in public
The Fourth Amendment claim that police entered the bar area of the plaintiff’s business because of police calls fails because it was open to the public. The selective enforcement claim fails on the facts. There is no First Amendment right … Continue reading
TX11: College student has REP in dorm room
A college student has a reasonable expectation of privacy in her dorm room from an entry by the police. The fact the resident assistant could look in there wasn’t determinative. State v. Rodriguez, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 9972 (Tex. App. … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: No REP in the hallway of a U-Haul storage facility from a dog sniff
Defendant did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the hallway of a U-Haul storage facility. Thus, a dog sniff there was probable cause for a search warrant for the storage unit. United States v. Flores, 2015 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
W.D.Okla.: The detailed nature of how CP file sharing tracking software works isn’t required to show PC
In a child pornography investigation, DHS used investigative software named Torrential Downpour which is used to track file sharing on P2P computers looking for child porn for transfer and monitoring data flow. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in … Continue reading
NJ: Stashing drugs in another person’s drainpipe shows no REP
Defendant who hid drugs in the drainpipe of a neighbor’s house had no standing to challenge a search of the drainpipe. While evidence at the trial differed, this did not give the defendant the right to reopen the suppression hearing. … Continue reading
D.Mass.: A paying passenger in a cab has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the passenger compartment
“While the question is close,” the court concludes that a paying passenger in a livery car has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the passenger area of the cab from the police, relying on United States v. Woodrum, 202 F.3d … Continue reading
SC: Turning computer over to repair tech when it wouldn’t boot was waiver of REP in the data because the hard drive needed repair
Defendant turned her computer over to a repair technician when it wouldn’t boot. He was copying files from the hard drive to backup the data before attempting to fix it, and he saw a questionable image suggesting child exploitation. Coincidentally, … Continue reading
The Marshall Project: A Phone Call From Jail? Better Watch What You Say
The Marshall Project: A Phone Call From Jail? Better Watch What You Say by Ken Armstrong: A confession, a threat—it’s probably taped. And admissible. Although people do things against their own interest all the time, even the police can be … Continue reading
D.Colo.: Motion for return of property denied until post-conviction process over
Defendants moved for return of their property after conviction and the appeal was affirmed. The government gets to keep it pending conclusion of any collateral review which might be filed. United States v. Banks, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107994 (D.Colo. … Continue reading
IA: No REP when in custody on a civil commitment order
Defendant was picked up on an involuntary commitment order for drug addiction, and she was brought to a hospital and locked in a room. She was directed to dress out into a hospital gown to go to the psychiatric floor, … Continue reading
AZ: Dog sniff in hotel hallway and knock-and-talk thereafter not unreasonable
About midnight, officers did a dog sniff in the hallway of defendant’s hotel, and the dog alerted on defendant’s door. There was no reasonable expectation of privacy in the hotel hallway, and hotel management permitted the dog to come in. … Continue reading
CA8: No REP in public areas of a store; telephonic warrant relied on in good faith; tribal judge not shown to not be neutral and detached because she had spoken out on def’s store
Defendant’s convenience store was arguably open, and he didn’t show that it was closed, for an officer to come in and observe synthetic marijuana for sale. He thus did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The officer obtained a … Continue reading
MD: Once DNA was lawfully seized, it can be compared to other samples at will
Defendant’s DNA was lawfully seized in the first place, and it could be compared thereafter to other samples for a match without it being an unreasonable search. The expectation of privacy ceased with the lawful seizure. Varriale v. State, 2015 … Continue reading
WaPo: Is credit card skimming a Fourth Amendment search?
WaPo: Is credit card skimming a Fourth Amendment search? by Orin Kerr: In United States v. Bah, [posted here] decided July 24th, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit handed down the first circuit ruling on whether skimming … Continue reading
CA6: No REP in magnetic strips on back of credit and gift cards lawfully seized
Defendant was found with over 70 credit and gift cards. The court finds no reasonable expectation of privacy in the magnetic strips on the back. They are intended to be read when used, and they are not a constitutionally protected … Continue reading
IA: Mistake of law doesn’t support stop (and doesn’t discuss Heien)
Defendant was sitting in a car on a parking lot with an open container, and an officer arrested for that and searched. The court of appeals reversed. The open container law clearly only applies to streets and highways and not … Continue reading