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- TX: If electronic search was illegal, it was harmless
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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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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
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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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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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)
ACLU on privacy
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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
WaPo: Volokh Conspiracy: Los Angeles v. Patel and the constitutional structure of judicial review
WaPo: Volokh Conspiracy: Los Angeles v. Patel and the constitutional structure of judicial review by Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz: On March 3, at 10 a.m., the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Los Angeles v. Patel, a fascinating case about the … Continue reading
D.Vt.: Def had no REP by giving a load of MJ to a driver to take to him in another state
Defendant packed marijuana in a trailer and entrusted it to a driver to take it to him in Vermont. The trailer was stopped in Illinois, subjected to a dog sniff, and the marijuana was found. The driver agreed to continue … Continue reading
PA decision that CI’s recording inside a house required a warrant affirmed by equally divided court
In 2013, Pennsylvania Superior Court held that the state constitution prohibits warrantless taping inside a suspect’s home with a video camera planted on an informant. Commonwealth v. Dunnavant, 2013 PA Super 38, 63 A.3d 1252 (2013) (posted here). That decision … Continue reading
No REP in peer-to-peer file sharing. Yes, that issue is still raised
Defendant’s computer was on the Gnutella peer-to-peer network. The police went in and found 1571 files for sharing and did a software driven search and found child porn on some of them. A week later they went back and found … Continue reading
LA3: Invited in CI videoing drug transaction is not Fourth Amendment violation
There is no constitutional impediment to a wired CI coming into the defendant’s house to video record a drug transaction. He was invited in. State v. Montgomery, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 2974 (La. App. 3 Cir. December 17, 2014). The … Continue reading
MO holds overstaying hotel rental period waiver of REP
Defendant paid for a room at a hotel through 11/7. On 11/8 he was still there and hadn’t paid. Hotel security went to the room, unlocked it, and the inside latch was locked. The door opened only two inches. Defendant … Continue reading
WaPo: Volokh: Two district courts adopt the mosaic theory of the Fourth Amendment
WaPo: Volokh: Two district courts adopt the mosaic theory of the Fourth Amendment by Orin Kerr: Regular readers will recall the mosaic theory of the Fourth Amendment introduced by the DC Circuit in United States v. Maynard, by which law … Continue reading
D.N.J.: No REP in a burner phone def didn’t claim he used and wasn’t subscribed to anybody
This defendant has no reasonable expectation of privacy in somebody else’s cell phone or the records of its use. He never used it or claimed any interest in it. He also lacks any standing in an unsubscribed burner phone. The … Continue reading
NPR: NOLA Police Hope Body Cameras Provide Important Evidence
NPR: NOLA Police Hope Body Cameras Provide Important Evidence: Police officers in New Orleans started wearing cameras this spring. Independent police monitor Susan Hutson tells NPR’s Scott Simon how the NOPD’s camera implementation is going.
W.D.N.Y.: SW for dumpsters here didn’t violate “business curtilage” nor a REP
A search warrant was issued for dumpsters on a “large commercial property” for evidence of asbestos dumping in violation of EPA law. Accepting that there might be a “business curtilage,” the court finds this search warrant didn’t violate any reasonable … Continue reading
The Atlantic: Seen It All Before: 10 Predictions About Police Body Cameras
The Atlantic: Seen It All Before: 10 Predictions About Police Body Cameras by Robinson Meyer: Twenty years ago, law enforcement and activists teamed up to support another video surveillance technology: in-car dash cams.
AK: The exclusionary rule does not apply in DL suspension proceedings, except where there is conduct shocking to the conscience
The exclusionary rule does not apply in drivers license suspension proceedings, except where there is conduct shocking to the conscience. Here, it’s not. Garibay v. State, Dept. of Administration, Division of Motor Vehicles, 2014 Alas. LEXIS 222 (November 28, 2014). … Continue reading
WaPo: Maker of smartphone spying app pleads guilty in federal court
WaPo: Maker of smartphone spying app pleads guilty in federal court by Matt Zapotosky: The maker of a smartphone app once marketed to help catch cheating lovers by listening in on phone calls and tracking locations was ordered Tuesday to … Continue reading
HuffPo: Apparent Drug Deal Goes Down During Live Local News Broadcast
HuffPo: Apparent Drug Deal Goes Down During Live Local News Broadcast by Jackson Connor
NYTimes: Mail Monitoring Rarely Denied, Postal Service Says
NYTimes: Mail Monitoring Rarely Denied, Postal Service Says by Ron Nixon: The United States Postal Service granted almost all of the nearly 6,700 requests from law enforcement agencies last year to monitor the mail of Americans for use in criminal … Continue reading
D.Conn.: No reasonable expectation of privacy in the back of a police car when defs alone talk to each other
Two defendants were arrested and left alone in the back of a police car, and, as hoped, they talked about the crime they were arrested for, and it was surreptitiously recorded. They may have had a subjective expectation of privacy … Continue reading
D.Minn.: There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in goods in a box opened for sale in a store
In a counterfeit sports jersey case, the defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in a box he opened and put on the counter of a store to sell. United States v. Gore, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 160497 (D. Minn. … Continue reading
OH3: There is a reasonable expectation of privacy in medical records; SW required
There is a reasonable expectation of privacy in medical records under Ferguson supported by McNeely. While statute may waive doctor-patient privilege, it does not waive the reasonable expectation of privacy. State v. Little, 2014-Ohio-4871, 2014 Ohio App. LEXIS 4743 (3d … Continue reading
National Constitution Center: Before the NSA, there was the USPS
National Constitution Center: Before the NSA, there was the USPS by Nicandro Iannacci: According to the USPS Office of Inspector General, 20 percent of law enforcement requests were not properly approved, and 13 percent were unjustified or not properly documented. … Continue reading