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- W.D.La.: No REP in state pretrial release GPS connecting def to federal crimes
- OH1: Protective sweep unjustified; inevitable discovery alternative waived by state by lack of preservation
- SD: Search incident to mental health hold was reasonable; container in pocket could be opened
- N.D.Ga.: Despite a technical mistake in this geofence warrant, it’s sustained under GFE
- WaPo: Meta AI users confide on sex, God and Trump. Some don’t know it’s public.
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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 / 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,
citations, and links -
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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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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: SCOTUS
SCOTUS: FTCA applies to raid of the wrong house, remanded to CA11
After federal law enforcement officers raided the wrong house, which should have been evident at the time, the occupants stay in court on their FTCA claim and get to litigate the negligence claim. Martin v. United States, 2025 U.S. LEXIS … Continue reading
Cert. granted: Case v. Montana on emergency entries into the home without PC
Case v. Montana, 24-624 (granted June 2, 2025). Question presented: “Whether law enforcement may enter a home without a search warrant based on less than probable cause that an emergency is occurring, or whether the emergency-aid exception requires probable cause.”
SCOTUS: Barnes v. Felix: The “totality of circumstances” in excessive force cases includes the entire encounter, not just the moments before force was used
The “totality of circumstances” in excessive force cases includes the entire encounter, not just the moments before force was used. Barnes v. Felix, 2025 U.S. LEXIS 1834 (May 15, 2025) (SCOTUSBlog). From the Syllabus:
Sophie Z. Lee, The Reconciliation Roots of Fourth Amendment Privacy
Sophie Z. Lee, The Reconciliation Roots of Fourth Amendment Privacy, 91 U. Chi. L. Rev. 2139 (2024):
55 years ago today: NPR: On This Day In 1970: Hruska Links Judge To ‘Mediocre’
NPR: On This Day In 1970: Hruska Links Judge To ‘Mediocre’ by Ken Rudin:
SCOTUS denies review of “the presence rule” for misdemeanor arrests
SCOTUS denied review of a case from the Eleventh Circuit on the in the presence rule for misdemeanor arrests from United States v. Gonzalez, 107 F.4th 1304 (11th Cir. 2024) because, noted by the statement of Sotomayor and Gorsuch, the … Continue reading
Cert. granted: Martin v. United States over mistaken SWAT raid
SCOTUSBlog: Justices take up case on right to sue over mistaken SWAT raid by Amy Howe:
Reason: “the Supreme Court’s oral argument yesterday in Barnes v. Felix will be noteworthy.”
Reason: Prof. Robert Leider on the arguments in Barnes v. Felix by Will Baude: Professor Robert Leider, who writes in both constitutional law and criminal law, passed along these comments on the Supreme Court’s recent oral argument in an excessive … Continue reading
Reason: New Cert Petition on Emergency Entry: What Was the Common Law Rule?
Reason: New Cert Petition on Emergency Entry: What Was the Common Law Rule? A few thoughts on a pending cert petition. by Orin S. Kerr:
Bloomberg Law: Supreme Court Passes on Police ‘Knock and Talk’ Arrest Challenge
Bloomberg Law: Supreme Court Passes on Police ‘Knock and Talk’ Arrest Challenge (“The US Supreme Court rejected a case challenging the power police have to detain people during so-called ‘knock and talk’ investigations. The justices decided on Monday not to … Continue reading
SCOTUS has a third-party records tax summons case, but not necessarily a 4A case, yet; it might become one
Added to Most Recent SCOTUS cases is Polselli v. Internal Revenue Service, 21-1599, cert. gr. Dec. 9, 2022, argument Mar. 29, 2023 (ScotusBlog). It is a third-party records summons case where the parties’ cert papers don’t even mention the Fourth … Continue reading
NYLJ: Commentary: The Constitution and the ‘Right to Privacy’
NYLJ: Commentary: The Constitution and the ‘Right to Privacy‘ (“In overruling ‘Roe’ and ‘Casey’, the new majority in the Supreme Court holds that there is no Constitutional ‘right to privacy.’”)
SCOTUSBlog: Court constricts, even if it does not quite eliminate, damages actions under Bivens
SCOTUSBlog: Court constricts, even if it does not quite eliminate, damages actions under Bivens by Howard M. Wasserman:
CNN: Supreme Court leak investigation heats up as clerks are asked for phone records in unprecedented move
CNN: Exclusive: Supreme Court leak investigation heats up as clerks are asked for phone records in unprecedented move by Joan Biskupic (“Supreme Court officials are escalating their search for the source of the leaked draft opinion that would overturn Roe … Continue reading
SCOTUS: Thompson v. Clark
Thompson v. Clark, 2022 U.S. LEXIS 1885 (Apr. 4, 2022) (ScotusBlog: “Larry Thompson’s showing that his criminal prosecution ended without a conviction satisfies the requirement to demonstrate a favorable termination of a criminal prosecution in a Fourth Amendment claim under … Continue reading
Reason: One Cheer for Stephen Breyer
Reason: One Cheer for Stephen Breyer by Damon Root:
SCOTUS grant: Bivens and excessive force
Egbert v. Boule, 21-147 (granted Nov. 5, 2021): Issues: (1) Whether a cause of action exists under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics for First Amendment retaliation claims; and (2) whether a cause of action … Continue reading
ABAJ: Chemerinsky: The Supreme Court has done a poor job protecting against police abuse of power and racism
ABAJ: Chemerinsky: The Supreme Court has done a poor job protecting against police abuse of power and racism by Erwin Chemerinsky:
Katz as Originalism
Orin Kerr, Katz as Originalism, Duke L.J. forthcoming (2021). Abstract:
Slate: The One Area Where Supreme Court Jurisprudence Is Actually Improving Thanks to Originalism
Slate: The One Area Where Supreme Court Jurisprudence Is Actually Improving Thanks to Originalism by David Gans (“For decades, the Supreme Court has repeatedly deferred to the police when judging the validity of searches and seizures by the government. For that … Continue reading