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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)
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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)
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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: August 2014
AOL: Typing errors led FBI/NSA to spy on wrong people
AOL: Typing errors led FBI/NSA to spy on wrong people: The FBI might be spying on you –– but before you start fighting back with methods your ninth grade copy of “1984” taught you, take a look at the embarrassing … Continue reading
WA: 911 call wasn’t reliable enough for a stop; there was reason to question its veracity
Conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm was subject to reversal because police officers had good reasons to question the reliability of the 911 call, any suspicion of an exigent circumstance had dissipated by the time police officers inquired whether … Continue reading
NYTimes: In Wake of Clashes, Calls to Demilitarize Police
NYTimes: In Wake of Clashes, Calls to Demilitarize Police by Julie Bosman and Matt Apuzzo: FERGUSON, Mo. — For four nights in a row, they streamed onto West Florissant Avenue wearing camouflage, black helmets and vests with “POLICE” stamped on … Continue reading
NM: No PC for SW in VIN switching scheme; not enough shown
Because of 1983’s Gates, it’s a rare case that doesn’t find probable cause, or at least good faith reliance on the finding of PC via Leon. Here’s one from New Mexico on a VIN switching scheme where the search warrant … Continue reading
NYTimes: Reagan-Era Order on Surveillance Violates Rights, Says Departing Aide
NYTimes: Reagan-Era Order on Surveillance Violates Rights, Says Departing Aide by Charlie Savage: WASHINGTON — After President Obama delivered a speech in January endorsing changes to surveillance policies, including an end to the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ … Continue reading
AZ: Being armed isn’t enough for a frisk; must still be RS crime is “afoot”
Being armed in Arizona is not reasonable suspicion for a frisk. There must also be reasonable suspicion that a crime might occur. Otherwise, law abiding armed citizens are always subject to a frisk without reasonable suspicion. State v. Serna, 2014 … Continue reading
TN: Exigency of 2 hr hospital wait supported warrantless blood draw in DUI
Exigency supported a warrantless blood draw here because defendant was in the hospital over two hours after a motorcycle accident where he was treated for his injuries and the officer got little or no time to deal with him. State … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Police deleting ptf’s computer file of police searching probationer’s home violates First Amendment
A police officer violated plaintiff’s First Amendment rights when he took her computer while she was recording their search of her house. No qualified immunity: If a citizen has a right to record the police in public, they sure do … Continue reading
Reason: Rise of the Super Drug Tunnels: California’s Losing Fight Against Smugglers
Reason: Rise of the Super Drug Tunnels: California’s Losing Fight Against Smugglers by Zach Weissmueller: But despite these high-visibility wins for Garcia’s team, a recent report from the California Attorney General’s office paints a picture of a California-Mexico border that’s … Continue reading
NYTimes: Sidebar: On Supreme Court, Does 9-0 Add Up to More Than 5-4?
NYTimes: Sidebar: On Supreme Court, Does 9-0 Add Up to More Than 5-4? by Adam Liptik: The Supreme Court issued a remarkable number of unanimous decisions last term, and in their public remarks the justices seemed unanimous in saying that … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Passenger had standing: girlfriend’s car, and they were on vacation together
Defendant’s girlfriend owned the car, and they were traveling together on vacation. Given all the facts, this passenger had standing and a reasonable expectation of privacy that society would recognize and could exclude others from the car. United States v. … Continue reading
Stop The Drug War: Will Supreme Court Cell Phone Search Ruling Apply Retroactively?
Stop The Drug War: Will Supreme Court Cell Phone Search Ruling Apply Retroactively? by Clarence Walker. Since so many federal cases held that the search incident doctrine applied until Wurie, Davis good faith pretty much seals the fate of that … Continue reading
IN: PC required to install a GPS device
Probable cause is required to install a GPS device on a vehicle. Keeylen v. State, 2014 Ind. App. LEXIS 384 (August 8, 2014): Still, we readily conclude that probable cause, not reasonable suspicion, is the standard that must be established … Continue reading
CA6: No RS for a frisk; gov’t waived standing in DC and can’t argue it on appeal
There was a basis for the stop, but there was none for a frisk, and the district court erred in concluding otherwise. Also, the government waive a standing argument in the district court and it can’t raise it on appeal. … Continue reading
OR: Exigent circumstances applies to animals in distress
Exigent circumstances permitted an entry onto property to seize and emaciated horse and get it to a veterinarian for care. State v. Fessenden, 2014 Ore. LEXIS 560 (August 7, 2014). The stop was 21 minutes long, but it was justified … Continue reading
Vox: Telling white people the criminal justice system is racist makes them like it more
Vox: Telling white people the criminal justice system is racist makes them like it more by Dara Lind: A new study suggests that highlighting racism in the criminal justice system is not the answer, and in fact pushes white voters … Continue reading
LAT: LAPD want to crack down on civilian drones after police station incident
LAT: LAPD want to crack down on civilian drones after police station incident: Los Angeles police officials say they may have to set boundaries on hobbyist drone use because local ordinances are vague and federal regulators are unlikely to put … Continue reading
AK: Officer sticking foot in the door to keep it from closing crosses the threshold and is a Fourth Amendment entry
Officers went to a house looking for a probation absconder who had apparently disconnected his GPS. When they knocked, defendant opened the door, and the officer stuck his foot in the door. Perceiving defendant to be fidgety and nervous, they … Continue reading