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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
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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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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (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: Informant hearsay
D.Guam: CI corroborated by prior police intel
The CI in this case was supported by (1) the fact defendant had been arrested for drugs in 2006 and (2) police intelligence that he was already dealing drugs. The search warrant was validly issued. United States v. Quitugua, 2016 … Continue reading
CA8: Affidavit only referred to CI as “reliable,” and the affiant could have said more but didn’t; PC on totality
The affidavit for a GPS warrant only referred to the CI as “reliable,” and the affiant could have said more but didn’t. Still, the officer did do things to try to corroborate without elaborating. On the totality, probable cause was … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: CI was a known regular and brought with the affidavit for SW; issuing magistrate could question
“Here, probable cause existed for the Niagara Falls City Court judge to issue the search warrant for Walnut Avenue. Law enforcement agents presented information through their affidavit that included the confidential informant’s reliability and the results of two controlled purchases. … Continue reading
TN: There is no constitutional requirement that the homeowner be identified in a SW
The IP address for the house defendant was staying in was linked to child pornography, and the search warrant for the premises clearly described the single family dwelling. Thus, all the personal property of those associated with the property, except … Continue reading
ND: CI’s info of def carrying meth on Amtrak was corroborated by its details proving otherwise true and another ongoing meth investigation
Defendant was the target of a methamphetamine investigation when DTF officers received information via a CI that she would be arriving on an Amtrak train from Washington State carrying meth. This was in addition to the original meth investigation. When … Continue reading
TN: Mere called-in description and location of allegedly impaired driver wasn’t enough for stop
A mere description of a truck and its general location, with no details of how the caller knew that the driver was impaired, was insufficient. Even when coupled with the officer’s one-minute interaction with defendant prior to seizing her where … Continue reading
D.V.I.: Citizen informant’s tip was corroborated by important details and justified stop
The citizen informant’s tip defendant was the person wanted in a carjacking was alone not enough to make a stop, but here it was corroborated by significant details. “Accordingly, considering the totality of the circumstances in this case, the Court … Continue reading
OH8: Snitch proved false when search of def’s person turned up nothing so search of car unjustified
Based on the snitch’s report that defendant had drugs on his person, officers searched him and found nothing. Therefore, the search of his car was invalid. Defense counsel’s failure to file a motion to suppress was thus IAC. State v. … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: CI was adequately corroborated and predictive info proved correct
The CI had been working with the drug officers for four months, and his significant information had been significantly corroborated. He also accurately predicted that $400,000 would be packaged and shipped by defendant. That was probable cause. United States v. … Continue reading
OH11: Lack of findings of fact and conclusions of law on suppression ruling requires reversal
Lack of findings of fact and conclusions of law requires reversal. “While it is error for the trial court to fail in providing requested findings of fact, it is not prejudicial where the record provides an appellate court with a … Continue reading
CA7: PC existed because officer recognized HGH on sight and an anonymous tip corroborated his belief
“Agent Cagnoni’s affidavit gave the magistrate judge a robust factual foundation to authorize a search of Dessart’s Reedsville residence.” While the HGH would take a while to test, the officer pretty much knew it when he saw it because that … Continue reading
OH3: Citizen informant reliable per se; dispatcher doesn’t need to be called at suppression hearing
“Unlike Navarette, this case presents an identified citizen informant, who, according to Weisner, is credited with greater reliability.” It also wasn’t necessary to call the police dispatcher at the suppression hearing. State v. Hancock, 2016-Ohio-2671, 2016 Ohio App. LEXIS 1544 … Continue reading
CA2: Female inmate’s forced prison strip search for male guard to inspect genitalia stated a claim
Forced prison strip search of female inmate to have her genitalia inspected by a male guard stated a claim for relief on her Fourth Amendment claim. The inmate retained a limited right to bodily privacy, there were disputes of fact … Continue reading
CA3: Parolee strip search in his own home was reasonable
Parole officers were properly granted summary judgment in a parolee’s claim that they unreasonably searched his property without cause. There was cause, there was no need for reasonable suspicion, and he established no material factual dispute about anything. Moreover, the … Continue reading
MO: Quarles doesn’t apply by plain words of statute to juvenile interrogations
The juvenile law’s provisions for a rights warning is mandatory, and the court declines to imply a public safety exception under Quarles. In Interest of J.L.H., 2016 Mo. App. LEXIS 211 (March 8, 2016). Plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment prison cell search … Continue reading
OH2: Police following you may be intimidating, but it’s not a seizure
Police following defendant may have been intimidating, but it wasn’t a seizure. He abandoned the drugs on him. State v. Ramey, 2016-Ohio-607, 2016 Ohio App. LEXIS 689 (2d Dist. Feb. 19, 2016).* A convenience store clerk who called the police … Continue reading