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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (discontinued 2018)
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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
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--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
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Section 1983 Blog -
"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) -
“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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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)
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Category Archives: School searches
M.D.Fla.: T.L.O. informs the use of handcuffs in school v. excessive force
T.L.O. informs the use of handcuffs in school v. excessive force. Here, the student was objectively enough of a safety risk to justify handcuffs. “Further, because the Fourth Amendment reasonableness inquiry is an objective standard, more discovery to determine Defendants’ … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Mere school employee conduct search of coworker’s purse not “state actors” for § 1983
A couple of school employees who suspected another of being under the influence of prescription medications searched her purse. They were not “state actors” for § 1983. As school employees, they had a heightened duty to protect the children. Lawson … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Refusing discovery on 4A grounds in forfeiture case results in no standing
On remand from the Sixth Circuit in this forfeiture case on the question of standing, claimant asserted Fourth Amendment privilege to all discovery requests about his standing to claim the money. The court finds no facts for standing means no … Continue reading
CO: School search of serial offender under firearms “safety plan” was reasonable
The juvenile here was searched for weapons three days into his sophomore year. He was known to bring firearms to school, and his family and the school developed a “safety plan” to permit searches, which happened most of the freshman … Continue reading
Fast Company: Schools are using surveillance tech to catch students vaping—and doling out harsh punishments
Fast Company: Schools are using surveillance tech to catch students vaping—and doling out harsh punishments (“Sensors marketed as fighting COVID-19 are actually being used to monitor students and then threaten them with suspension—or even criminal charges.”). Is there a reasonable … Continue reading
CA6: Smell of MJ on student’s person justified school search
The smell of marijuana on a student’s person justified a school search, and here it was their backpack then pockets. Stanford v. Northmont City Sch. Dist., 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 26336 (6th Cir. Oct. 2, 2023). This § 1983 plaintiff … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: 30-minute seizure of cell phone in school that was never searched was not unreasonable
Seizure of a cell phone in school for 30 minutes that was not searched at all was not unreasonable. McGuire v. Roseville Joint Union High Sch. Dist., 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98392 (E.D. Cal. June 5, 2023).* The warrantless blood … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Search of cell phone at school for explicit photos of 14-year-old reasonable under T.L.O.
A 13-year-old male student was showing explicit pictures of a 14-year-old girl on his phone at school. The search of the phone by school officials was reasonable under T.L.O., and it led him to juvenile court. O.W. v. Sch. Bd. … Continue reading
IN: dog sniff outside a hotel room door was reasonable under the state constitution
A dog sniff outside a hotel room door was reasonable under the state constitution. (And, while other information was illegally gathered, this was enough for the warrant.) Crabtree v. State, 2022 Ind. App. LEXIS 385 (Dec. 1, 2022). Excessive force … Continue reading
CA2: SW said “electronics” and “passwords” to access them, but it did not say “computers”; those words mean computers
The search warrant used the word “electronics” and “passwords” to access them, but it did not say “computers.” “Because the warrant specifically permitted seizure of “electronics,” a category into which computers and tablets would fall under the plain text, not … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Random Covid testing reasonable search under special needs doctrine
Assuming random Covid testing of NYC school children is a Fourth Amendment search, the court applies Vernonia School District 47J and special needs and finds it reasonable. Aviles v. De Blasio, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38930 (S.D. N.Y. Mar. 2, … Continue reading
Crime Online: School principal ordered to pay $3.6M for sharing students’ nude pictures online
Crime Online: School principal ordered to pay $3.6M for sharing students’ nude pictures online by Jacquelyn Gray (“A former principal in Kentucky who is serving a nine-year federal prison sentence was ordered last week to pay $3.6 million for confiscating … Continue reading
TX4: School search was based on RS from info from known source
There was reasonable suspicion for a school search because the school authorities had information from a known source that provided it. In re J.A.M., 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 2077 (Tex. App. – San Antonio Mar. 11, 2020). Defendant’s chokehold on … Continue reading
MO: Suspicionless bookbag search at school was safety related and reasonable
This juvenile was subjected to a suspicionless bookbag search by school security in a St. Louis public school that found a gun. The court finds the search was reasonable based on the school safety factor alone. In the Interest of … Continue reading
Education Week (blog): Justices Decline to Review Case Involving Strip Search of 4-Year-Old at School
Education Week (blog): Justices Decline to Review Case Involving Strip Search of 4-Year-Old at School by Mark Walsh:
New Law Review Article: Implicit Racial Bias and Students’ Fourth Amendment Rights
New Law Review Article: Jason P. Nance, Implicit Racial Bias and Students’ Fourth Amendment Rights, 94 Ind. L. J. 47 (2019):
CA11: Drug testing of substitute teacher applicants was reasonable
Drug testing of substitute teacher applicants was reasonable. School employment is different and protection of the environment of children is paramount. Friedenberg v. School Board of Palm Beach County, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 35905 (11th Cir. Dec. 20, 2018):
Tech Advocate: Can Schools Search Students’ Personal Devices
Tech Advocate: Can Schools Search Students’ Personal Devices by Matthew Lynch:
CA9: School resource officer’s arrest of alleged bullying middle school girls ‘to prove a point’ and ‘make [them] mature a lot faster’ was unreasonable under T.L.O.
Arresting middle school girls for alleged bullying and fighting at school violated the Fourth Amendment and was unreasonable: “After concluding that the girls were unresponsive and disrespectful, the deputy arrested the girls ‘to prove a point’ and ‘make [them] mature … Continue reading