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- D.Me.: Yes, more investigation could have been done, but there’s still PC on what there was
- CA3: Brady doesn’t apply to SW materials
- E.D.Mich.: Person a cell phone was given to as gift could consent to search
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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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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)
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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. 
Monthly Archives: June 2014
WaPo: When drones fall from the sky
WaPo: When drones fall from the sky by Craig Whitlock: Commercial drone flights are set to become a widespread reality in the United States, starting next year, under a 2012 law passed by Congress. Drone flights by law enforcement agencies … Continue reading
WaPo: The Eleventh Circuit’s novel approach to the Fourth Amendment in the Davis case
WaPo: The Eleventh Circuit’s novel approach to the Fourth Amendment in the Davis case by Orin Kerr: I’ve been thinking more about the Eleventh Circuit’s decision last week in United States v. Quartavious Davis holding that the Fourth Amendment protects … Continue reading
NYT Editorial: The House Actually Did Something About Warrantless Surveillance
NYT Editorial: The House Actually Did Something About Warrantless Surveillance by Andrew Rosenthal: In an unusual display of unity from the divided, do-nothing House, a bipartisan group of lawmakers pushed through a bill that basically says, yes, the Fourth Amendment … Continue reading
Cato: Police Ignorance of the Law Is No Excuse (re: Heien v. North Carolina)
Cato: Police Ignorance of the Law Is No Excuse (re: Hein v. North Carolina) by Ilya Shapiro: To execute any search or seizure, a police officer must reasonably suspect that a crime has been or is being committed based on … Continue reading
NYLJ: Judge Rejects Suit by Police, Upholds Anti-Profiling Law
NYLJ: Judge Rejects Suit by Police, Upholds Anti-Profiling Law: The ruling is a victory for the de Blasio Administration, a defeat for the former Bloomberg Administration, a triumph for civil rights groups and a setback for police unions and law … Continue reading
W.D.Wis.: Parole absconder hiding in hotel room of another had no standing
Defendant was a guest of a guest in a hotel room, and he was an absconder from supervision and had committed a new crime and was on the run. The question of guest standing is discussed at length, and there’s … Continue reading
NY2: State waived ground for search incident by not arguing it in the trial court
A gun was found in a backpack of defendant chased by the police fleeing from an arrest. There was no ground shown for search incident of the backpack. The state did not rely on possible presence of drug evidence in … Continue reading
KY: State gets to argue standing on appeal even though it didn’t raise it below
Although the state didn’t raise standing below, it gets to based on the theory of “affirming on any ground shown by the record.” The record here showed no standing in the defendant’s grandfather’s house where he was running a meth … Continue reading
OH5: Not necessary to have issuing magistrate at suppression hearing as witness; what does that add?
The trial court didn’t abuse its discretion in quashing the subpoena for testimomy from the issuing magistrate because it would add little or nothing to the suppression hearing. State v. McElfresh, 2014-Ohio-2605, 2014 Ohio App. LEXIS 2549 (5th Dist. June … Continue reading
OH9: Officer could inquire of car that obviously did not belong in the driveway where it was seen
An officer on patrol saw a car parked in a driveway that he knew didn’t belong. He ran the LPN and it was not registered to the owner, so he approached the driver and saw him drinking behind the wheel. … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Seeing a split of authorities, the court concludes lifting a suspect’s shirt is a search requiring PC
Defendant’s shirt was lifted by the officer to look for a potential weapon. The court finds here that it was without reasonable suspicion. Considering various federal cases from circuit and district courts, there is a split of authority. The court … Continue reading
OH12: RS for DUI doesn’t support calling drug dog; new RS needed for that
Defendant was pulled over for having no rear bumper. Reasonable suspicion developed for DUI based on the smell of alcohol, but when the officer called for a drug dog, he needed separate reasonable suspicion for that. The first detention and … Continue reading
WaPo: The Fourth Amendment and regional variation
WaPo: The Fourth Amendment and regional variation by Orin Kerr: The recent circuit split between the Fifth Circuit and the Eleventh Circuit over collecting cell-site records without a warrant prompts an interesting question about how Fourth Amendment doctrine responds to … Continue reading
AntiWar.com: Your Local Police May Be Collecting Metadata
AntiWar.com: Your Local Police May Be Collecting Metadata by Lucy Steigerwald: When talking of freewheeling domestic spying, it would behoove us to remember that it’s not just the National Security Agency (NSA) that needs reform and a tight leash. Hell, … Continue reading
NYT: As Justice Department Scrutinizes Local Police, Cleveland Is Latest Focus
NYT: As Justice Department Scrutinizes Local Police, Cleveland Is Latest Focus by Erik Eckholm: CLEVELAND — As cries of “shots fired” shrieked from police radios, a caravan that grew to 62 patrol cars chased an old blue Malibu through 20 … Continue reading
Center for Investigative Reporting: Plans to expand scope of license-plate readers alarm privacy advocates
Center for Investigative Reporting: Plans to expand scope of license-plate readers alarm privacy advocates by Ali Winston: Documents obtained by The Center for Investigative Reporting show that a leading maker of license-plate readers wants to merge the vehicle identification technology … Continue reading
WaPo: Rand Paul’s drug war talk in Iowa was important, but not for the reason you think
WaPo: Rand Paul’s drug war talk in Iowa was important, but not for the reason you think by Radley Balko: Iowa leads the country in racially disproportionate pot arrests.
CA5: Arrest warrant authorized entry to arrest in defendant’s home
Defendant’s Franks challenge fails because the information omitted isn’t material at all to the outcome. Officers used an arrest warrant to gain entry and they reasonably believed she was there. After all, she answered the door. A protective sweep doesn’t … Continue reading
CA2: Even if SORA was a search and seizure it would be reasonable under special needs
Even if the New York Sex Offender Registration Act constituted a search and seizure or implicated the Fourth Amendment at all [which is not clear or obvious], it would survive special needs analysis. Doe v. Cuomo, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA2: Keeping nonresponsive computer files long after search became a general warrant
The government’s keeping three hard drives for 2½ years including many files that were not responsive to the search warrant was unreasonable because it became a de facto general warrant. “Instead, we consider a more limited question: whether the Fourth … Continue reading