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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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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: October 2014
GA: Lost original affidavit for SW may be proved by testimony
A lost original affidavit for a search warrant can still be proved by testimony that the warrant was otherwise validly issued. Thus, defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not challenging it on appeal where the record was made on the lost … Continue reading
NY4: “[T]he police may not ask an occupant of a lawfully stopped vehicle if he or she has any weapons unless they have a founded suspicion”
“[T]he police may not ask an occupant of a lawfully stopped vehicle if he or she has any weapons unless they have a founded suspicion that criminality is afoot.” The search here was invalid. People v. Wideman, 2014 NY Slip … Continue reading
CT: Was SI of closet near def handcuffed face down within his reach? Close question, so harmless error applied
Was a defendant handcuffed face down potentially still enough of a risk of danger that a search incident of a closet four feet from him might have been reasonable? Pills were found instead of a weapon. This is a close … Continue reading
Inquistor: ‘Do You Accept Jesus Christ?’ Cop Asks Woman During Traffic Stop, Now She’s Suing Him
Inquistor: ‘Do You Accept Jesus Christ?’ Cop Asks Woman During Traffic Stop, Now She’s Suing Him When Indiana State Trooper Brian Hamilton pulled over 60-year-old Ellen Bogan for some sort of supposed traffic violation in August, he asked for her … Continue reading
OR: Impoundment of defendant’s car in his own driveway was unreasonable
In an almost identical case, the Ninth Circuit previously held that impoundment of defendant’s car parked in his own driveway was unconstitutional. Using the community caretaking to seize defendant’s car from his driveway for safekeeping was unreasonable. State v. Gonzales, … Continue reading
S.D.Ala.: SW for drugs doesn’t need to mention firearms to seize them when found
A search warrant for drugs doesn’t have to mention firearms to seize them. Firearms and drugs are usually linked, and there is a reasonable inference that the presence of firearms around drugs means they are related to each other. United … Continue reading
TN: One controlled buy 3 days ago without ID’g source person was not PC to search; could have been a visitor
A CI’s statement that a controlled buy occurred out of defendant’s apartment failed to show probable cause where there was no connection to the sale and the owner or tenant shown. It could have been a mere visitor. State v. … Continue reading
NY Post: Terror suspect can retract guilty plea after feds admit warrantless wiretaps
NY Post: Terror suspect can retract guilty plea after feds admit warrantless wiretaps by Selim Algar: A Brooklyn architect who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for admitting he tried to join a Pakistani terrorist group will be allowed … Continue reading
WaPo: DEA created a fake Facebook profile in this woman’s name using seized pics – then impersonated her
WaPo: DEA created a fake Facebook profile in this woman’s name using seized pics – then impersonated her by Terrence McCoy: At first glance, the Facebook profile is the perfect deception. Purportedly belonging to brown-haired woman named Sondra Prince, it … Continue reading
LegalIntelligencer.com: Extraterritorial Searches for Electronically Stored Information
LegalIntelligencer.com: Extraterritorial Searches for Electronically Stored Information by Leonard Deutchman: On Sept. 18, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, along with Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., introduced the Law Enforcement Access to Data Stored Abroad Act, or the LEADS … Continue reading
Wired.com: Feds ‘Hacked’ Silk Road Without A Warrant? Perfectly Legal, Prosecutors
Wired.com: Feds ‘Hacked’ Silk Road Without A Warrant? Perfectly Legal, Prosecutors Argue by Andy Greenberg:
Cal.1st: Govt search of computer exceeded prior private search
The government search of defendant’s computer here exceeded the private search, going into the container within a container rationale. People v. Evans, 2014 Cal. App. LEXIS 887 (1st Dist. October 3, 2014):
AL: Nervousness and a criminal record but without evasion is not reasonable suspicion
Defendant’s nervousness without any evasion and a past criminal record was not reasonable suspicion. The officer testified that he was concerned about four folding knives in the car as potential weapons, but he didn’t get around to doing a search … Continue reading
WaPo: Oral argument in Heien v. North Carolina
WaPo: Oral argument in Heien v. North Carolina by Orin Kerr: I attended the oral argument this morning in the Supreme Court’s first case of the new Term, Heien v. North Carolina. I had a long preview of Heien here. … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: NYPD warrantlessly searched a camera memory card; govt must brief whether Riley applies
Defendant didn’t show standing to challenge the search of a car that produced some evidence and a digital camera. He was, however, the undisputed owner of a digital camera that the NYPD removed the memory card from and searched without … Continue reading
The Atlantic: The ‘Barney Fife Loophole’ to the Fourth Amendment
Re Heien v. North Carolina, being argued today: The Atlantic: The ‘Barney Fife Loophole’ to the Fourth Amendment by Garrett Epps: A case before the Supreme Court asks whether police can stop drivers for doing something that isn’t a crime … Continue reading
Having trouble getting in sometimes? I have been
Two different computer guys tell me it’s malware, so I scan for it. Hopefully the host server does, too. Sometimes I can’t get in with Chrome or Firefox but can with IE. Go figure. Patience. The domain name is paid … Continue reading
IA: Iowa requires a search warrant for a probation search
Iowa requires a search warrant for a probation search. State v. Sacco, 2014 Iowa App. LEXIS 945 (October 1, 2014): The State asserts the legality of the search at issue here is “controlled by Griffin.” In regard only to Sacco’s … Continue reading
OH10: Defendant passed out behind the wheel wasn’t stopped since he didn’t know it
“As the officers approached appellant’s car, appellant was passed out and slumped over the driver’s seat. Because appellant was not capable of deciding whether he was free to leave, the officers’ approach to his car cannot be considered a restraint … Continue reading