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- WaPo: Americans have turned against police cameras that track license plates, new survey shows
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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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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: October 2014
Note to readers: Updated citations haven’t been coming from Lexis; page proofs to paper supplement done
I noticed about 3 or so months ago that Lexis has not been sending me second or even third versions of cases as the citations or text update. For instances, when headnotes appear, I’d get a case again. Then the … Continue reading
HuffPo: “SWAT Team Shot David Hooks At Home After Tip From Meth Addict”; no drugs
Why do we have an informant hearsay rule? Because of things like this: HuffPo: SWAT Team Shot David Hooks At Home After Tip From Meth Addict by Michael McLaughlin:
Above the Law: Does The Mass Collection Of Phone Records Violate The Fourth Amendment?
Above the Law: Does The Mass Collection Of Phone Records Violate The Fourth Amendment? by Joe Patrice: Not to get all originalist, but isn’t “government collecting evidence at random based on vague suspicion” exactly the scenario that the Framers of … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Mistaken reference to SW attachment no. is saved by good faith exception
An FBI agent was under investigation for bribery for selling information about an investigation. The government showed probable cause for e-mail and cell phone search warrants. The SW cross-referenced Attachment II when it should have said III, and that was … Continue reading
The Oregonian: $562,000 jury award against Portland police is largest brutality verdict in city history
The Oregonian: $562,000 jury award against Portland police is largest brutality verdict in city history by Aimee Green: A jury’s decision last week to award more than $562,000 to a 40-year-old man who was repeatedly punched in the head and … Continue reading
WaPo: More drug war anal probes, this time in Tennessee
WaPo: More drug war anal probes, this time in Tennessee by Radley Balko: Last year we learned of three incidents in New Mexico in which motorists pulled over for moving violations were subjected to forced anal cavity searches, x-rays and … Continue reading
TX9: Officer’s getting SW for black box first showed he could get SW for blood too; suppressed
The officer had the time and wherewithal to get an immediate search warrant for the defendant’s vehicle’s “black box” so he also had time to get one for defendant’s blood. State v. Anderson, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 11151 (Tex. App. … Continue reading
JD Supra: Privacy and Fourth Amendment Issues Among Legal Concerns for Law Enforcement Use of Body-Worn Cameras
JD Supra: Privacy and Fourth Amendment Issues Among Legal Concerns for Law Enforcement Use of Body-Worn Cameras byGary Schons: While there are many considerations for police departments interested in using body-worn cameras in the field, including policy issues and deployment … Continue reading
Just Security: Executive Order 12333 and the Golden Number
Just Security: Executive Order 12333 and the Golden Number by Alvaro Bedoya: I recently moderated a debate between Professor Nathan Sales of Syracuse Law, Professor Laura Donohue of Georgetown Law, Bob Litt, general counsel of the Office of the Director … Continue reading
HuffPo: Michigan Cops Raid Wrong House, Shoot Beloved 15-Year-Old Dog
HuffPo: Michigan Cops Raid Wrong House, Shoot Beloved 15-Year-Old Dog by David Lohr: Authorities who went to the wrong house in search of a wanted fugitive and shot a beloved family pet are refusing to take responsibility for their actions, … Continue reading
NPR: Apple Says iOS Encryption Protects Privacy; FBI Raises Crime Fears
NPR: Apple Says iOS Encryption Protects Privacy; FBI Raises Crime Fears by Brian Naylor: The FBI says Apple encryption software could make it harder for the police to solve crimes. But Apple CEO Tim Cook disagrees, saying this is about … Continue reading
BBC: Phones held by police remotely wiped
BBC: Phones held by police remotely wiped by Jane Wakefield All the data on some of the tablets and phones seized as evidence is being wiped out, remotely, while they are in police custody, the BBC has learned.
SCOTUSblog: Argument analysis: A simple answer to a deceptively simple Fourth Amendment question?
SCOTUSblog: Argument analysis: A simple answer to a deceptively simple Fourth Amendment question? by Rory Little: As previewed here, the question on which the Court granted review in Heien v. North Carolina was a simple one: May a police officer’s … Continue reading
Forbes: Eleventh Circuit Ruling a Welcome Judicial Pushback against Criminal Enforcement of Regulations
Forbes: Eleventh Circuit Ruling a Welcome Judicial Pushback against Criminal Enforcement of Regulations: Yes, you read that correctly. On August 21, 2010, a veritable SWAT team of heavily armed police conducted a warrantless inspection to check for barbers’ licensing violations. … Continue reading
NJLJ: Bills Would Restrict Access to Cars’ ‘Black Box’ Data
NJLJ: Bills Would Restrict Access to Cars’ ‘Black Box’ Data: New Jersey lawmakers may soon enact legislation that would limit access to information from event data recorders installed in automobiles that track speed, location, time of use and the number … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service: Cops Can’t Always Be TV Stars, Judge Says
Courthouse News Service: Cops Can’t Always Be TV Stars, Judge Says by Cameron Langford: Texas lawmen who let a reality TV crew film their raid of a suspect’s home may have violated the woman’s civil rights, a federal judge ruled.
CA7: “[P]ointing guns at Matz while ordering him to stop or risk having his ‘fucking head’ blown off, frisking, handcuffing, and placing him in a patrol car” reasonable here under Terry
While the question is close, “pointing guns at Matz while ordering him to stop or risk having his ‘fucking head’ blown off, frisking, handcuffing, and placing him in a patrol car—was reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which initially … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service: U.S. Must Reveal Some Tracking Technology
Courthouse News Service: U.S. Must Reveal Some Tracking Technology by Elizabeth Warmerdam: The Department of Justice must release documents on government policies and procedures for use of location-tracking technology in Northern California, a federal judge ruled.
N.D.Iowa: Following defendant into his driveway did not violate curtilage
Following defendant into his driveway did not violate curtilage. The officer walked around the truck to see if it matched one in a store surveillance video. United States v. Rojas, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140708 (N.D. Iowa October 3, 2014), … Continue reading