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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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General (many free):
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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)
ACLU on privacy
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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: July 2014
WaPo: How liberals can reclaim the Constitution
WaPo: How liberals can reclaim the Constitution by Jack M. Balkin: For years, conservatives have called for taking back the Constitution. In one sense, that claim is deeply ironic: Conservatives have dominated the appointments to the federal courts for a … Continue reading
DC: No bright line rule on how long a detention for a show up can go before it becomes unreasonable; here, an hour was unreasonable
There is no bright line rule on how long a detention for a show up can go before it becomes unreasonable. SCOTUS has said that the least intrusive means should be followed. Here, it was over an hour and it … Continue reading
OH5: Traffic warrant did not authorize entry into home of third person to arrest
A traffic arrest warrant did not support entry into the premises of a third person where the police had less than a suspicion that the target was there. The entry led to finding evidence against the homeowner which is suppressed. … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Effort to show no PC for defendant at the premises only showed a lack of standing
Defendant conflates the probable cause requirement for a search and the standing question. In his effort to show that the government lacked probable cause to connect him to the premises, he succeeded in only showing that he lacked standing to … Continue reading
MA: Smell of unburnt marijuana at a sobriety checkpoint with no signs of impairment doesn’t justify search
A sobriety checkpoint stop produced the smell of unburnt marijuana, and the vehicle was segregated for a search. Here, the search incident doctrine doesn’t apply when the defendant was never arrested. There were no signs of impairment. Commonwealth v. Craan, … Continue reading
Texas Lawyer: Women Settles Body Cavity Search Case Against Hospital, Doctors for $1.1 Million
Texas Lawyer: Women Settles Body Cavity Search Case Against Hospital, Doctors for $1.1 Million
NH: Detached garage of house was within curtilage
Officers’ entry onto defendant’s property to make observations around his detached garage was a violation of curtilage under Jardines. His later consent was found not tainted, but the trial court’s findings are inadequate on whether the illegal search did, in … Continue reading
WaPo: Manassas City police release statement on teen ‘sexting’ case: Won’t seek warrant for picture of an erection
WaPo: Manassas City police release statement on teen ‘sexting’ case by Tom Jackman: In response to The Post’s story Wednesday about a felony sexting case in Prince William County, the Manassas City police released this statement shortly after 6 p.m. … Continue reading
WaPo: Daniel Chong is the entirely predictable result of dehumanizing drug offenders
WaPo: Daniel Chong is the entirely predictable result of dehumanizing drug offenders by Radley Balko: “Drug people are the very vermin of humanity.” – Myles Ambrose, director of the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement during the Nixon Administration. The … Continue reading
WaPo: In ‘sexting’ case, police want to take photo of teen’s erect genitalia, his lawyer says
WaPo: In ‘sexting’ case, police want to take photo of teen’s erect genitalia, his lawyer says by Tom Jackman: Manassas City police and Prince William County prosecutors are taking a unique approach to collecting evidence in a “sexting” case involving … Continue reading
CA10: No state action for Fourth Amendment claim against NBC’s “Dateline”
In a defamation action against NBC’s Dateline for surreptitiously entering plaintiff’s brokerage seminar to record parts of it with the encouragement of Alabama state officials, there was no Fourth Amendment violation. There was no state action or coercion in facilitating … Continue reading
CA10: Heck and SoL barred claim that 2007 arrest undermined conviction
Plaintiff sued over his 2007 arrest to undermine his murder conviction. “As the district court correctly held, Mr. Williams’s complaint implicates the validity of his conviction and sentence and therefore is barred under Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994). … Continue reading
OH5: Meth lab was in a building not on the curtilage
The meth lab on defendant’s property was not on the curtilage. It was a separate building away from the house. State v. Schorr, 2014-Ohio-2992, 2014 Ohio App. LEXIS 2933 (5th Dist. July 2, 2014).* The officer here was justified in … Continue reading
D.Kan.: RS on totality here was weak and motion to suppress granted
“Although a close call, the Court concludes that the trooper did not have reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot and had no right to detain Medina for further investigation. Though reasonable suspicion is not meant to be an onerous … Continue reading
New Law Review Article: Privacy Protests: Surveillance Evasion and Fourth Amendment Reasonable Suspicion
Privacy Protests: Surveillance Evasion and Fourth Amendment Reasonable Suspicion, Elizabeth E. Joh, 55 Ariz. L. Rev. 997 (2014). Abstract:
New Law Review Article: Bulk Metadata Collection: Statutory and Constitutional Considerations
Bulk Metadata Collection: Statutory and Constitutional Considerations, Laura K. Donohue, 37 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 757 (2014). Abstract:
WaPo: Meet Jason Westcott, your latest, needless, inexcusable drug war casualty
WaPo: Meet Jason Westcott, your latest, needless, inexcusable drug war casualty by Radley Balko: Add another body to the drug war pile. From the Tampa Bay Times, here is the story of the death of Jason Westcott. A man who … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Closet in small apartment was proper subject of a protective sweep
A closet was the proper subject of a protective sweep during a warranted arrest in a small apartment. It took defendant a while to answer the door, and there was a noise from the closet. Buie specifically recognizes this. United … Continue reading
Law360: High Court Is Swinging Pendulum Back On 4th Amendment
Law360: High Court Is Swinging Pendulum Back On 4th Amendment Law360, New York (July 08, 2014, 10:44 AM ET) — Fourth Amendment law is anything but static. If one surveys the jurisprudential landscape over the last 50 years, there are … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Casual visitor had no apparent authority to consent, and he wasn’t even asked what his connection was
Merely answering the door isn’t enough to be asked for consent. This guy was a casual visitor, he had no actual authority to consent, and the police made no effort to determine his apparent authority. If they asked, it would … Continue reading