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- WaPo: Americans have turned against police cameras that track license plates, new survey shows
- W.D.Tex.: What is the duty of the neutral and detached magistrate?
- 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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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)
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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
CA10: Not unreasonable to handcuff occupants during execution of SW for gun
In execution of a search warrant for a gun, it wasn’t unreasonable for the officers to handcuff people there for officer safety even through there was a suggestion that the gun had moved before the SW arrived. Wigley v. City … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Entry into def’s house two hours after robbery was admittedly not “hot pursuit”
Officers arrived at defendant’s house two hours after defendant, a suspect in a robbery. It wasn’t hot pursuit and they were looking for him to “talk to him,” not arrest him. The entry into the basement was not a protective … Continue reading
AR: Stop was without RS where it was to tell defendant his neighbors complained about him
Defendant’s stop was without any reasonable suspicion he had committed any kind of offense. The stop was to tell defendant that the neighbors were complaining about him. Dewitt v. State, 2014 Ark. App. 369 (June 4, 2014).* The use of … Continue reading
WV: Guest who took over house to run drug operation and threatened host denied standing
Defendant could not claim to be an “overnight guest” with standing where he took over the house, ran an illegal drug trade there for three weeks against the wishes of the owner, and threatened to kill his host if she … Continue reading
MA: Reasonable delay in finishing search of cell phone with SW is permissible
Delay in searching a cell phone with a warrant is governed by the rules of searching computers with warrants, and a reasonable delay doesn’t void the search. Commonwealth v. Ericson, 85 Mass. App. Ct. 326 (May 23, 2014):
New Law Review Article: Abidor v. Napolitano: Suspicionless Cell Phone and Laptop “Strip” Searches at the Border Compromise the Fourth and Fifth Amendments
Abidor v. Napolitano: Suspicionless Cell Phone and Laptop “Strip” Searches at the Border Compromise the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, Adam Lamparello & Charles E. MacLean, 108 Nw. U. L. Rev. Colloquy 280 (2014). Abstract: Technology has outpaced the law, and … Continue reading
CA11: Airport screenings are administrative searches
Airport screenings are administrative searches. During a more intense screening here, it was not unreasonable to look through a book because of the possibility of “sheet explosives.” The whole process here took about an hour, but it was plaintiff’s own … Continue reading
examiner.com: Florida Gubernatorial candidate challenging facial recognition DL records
examiner.com: Florida Gubernatorial candidate shows up in court by Adrian Wyllie. He’s challenging the REAL ID Act of 2005 which requires facial recognition imagery: Libertarian Party of Florida Gubernatorial candidate Adrian Wyllie was in court yesterday morning, June 4, 2014, … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Gov’t required to limit scope of application for location data
A cell phone tower dump of cell site location data on phones is not subject to a reasonable expectation of privacy because the system works by keeping track of location all the time and the customers have to know it. … Continue reading
WaPo: Anatomy of a pot bust
WaPo: Anatomy of a pot bust by Radley Balko I’m not even going to summarize it. Just read it: our “War on Drugs” because of overtime pay.
ABAJ: Courts in a muddle over 4th Amendment’s community caretaking exception
ABAJ: Courts in a muddle over 4th Amendment’s community caretaking exception by David L. Hudson (Aug. 1, 2013): Some view it as a monstrous leviathan that could devour much of search-and-seizure protections. Others view it as simply a common-sense, rational … Continue reading
Treatise 15% off at Lexis Bookstore through 6/8
Search and Seizure (5th ed.) is 15% off at the Lexis Bookstore through 6/8.
W.D.Mo.: At least some limited privacy interests in a car
While this person lost his suppression motion, at least the court recognized there is some privacy interest in an automobile. United States v. Long, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75588 n.2 (W.D. Mo. May 15, 2014): The stop of an individual … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: A woman forced to leave a home because of alleged domestic violence, even though expressing no intent to return, still has apparent authority to consent
A woman forced to leave a home because of alleged domestic violence, even though expressing no intent to return, still has apparent authority to consent. United States v. Turner, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75088 (S.D. N.Y. June 2, 2014): This … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Def doesn’t show factual basis for any exclusion for Rule 41 violation
Defendant’s motion to suppress for a Rule 41 violation is denied as untimely. Even on the merits, it shows no factual basis for exclusion. United States v. Williams, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75567 (D. Nev. February 14, 2014): Williams’ motion … Continue reading
WaPo: How hard should it be for cops to track your location? A new lawsuit revives the debate.
WaPo: How hard should it be for cops to track your location? A new lawsuit revives the debate. by Brian Fung: Privacy advocates sued a Florida police department Tuesday over a controversial surveillance technology that, they say, improperly lets authorities … Continue reading
WSJ: Sealed Court Files Obscure Rise in Electronic Surveillance
WSJ: Sealed Court Files Obscure Rise in Electronic Surveillance by Jennifer Valentino-DeVries: Data obtained by The Wall Street Journal from the Justice Department and various federal district courts suggest that electronic-surveillance orders have increased over the past decade and that … Continue reading
Miami Herald: Federal judge rules Key West’s drug testing policy unconstitutional
Miami Herald: Federal judge rules Key West’s drug testing policy unconstitutional: The City of Key West’s policy that requires job applicants for city positions to be drug tested has been ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge in Miami. The American … Continue reading