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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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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: November 2014
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court added to sidebar
I only discovered that there was one today because Lexis sent two cases from it, one of which is posted immediately below. By the looks of it, all the links were added in April so it likely was created about … Continue reading
FISC judge disagrees with Klayman v. Obama
A FISC judge disagrees with Klayman v. Obama (posted here and argued in the D.C. Cir. this past week). Also, ISPs have statutory standing to bring an action in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court when they get a demand for … Continue reading
OH3: There is a reasonable expectation of privacy in medical records; SW required
There is a reasonable expectation of privacy in medical records under Ferguson supported by McNeely. While statute may waive doctor-patient privilege, it does not waive the reasonable expectation of privacy. State v. Little, 2014-Ohio-4871, 2014 Ohio App. LEXIS 4743 (3d … Continue reading
NC: The right to have counsel present during a breathalyzer test doesn’t apply to blood draws under a search warrant
The right to have counsel present during a breathalyzer test doesn’t apply to blood draws under a search warrant. State v. Shepley, 2014 N.C. App. LEXIS 1124 (November 4, 2014): “During the administration of a breathalyzer test, the person being … Continue reading
Cal. App.-San Diego: Mistake of law doesn’t support a stop
Mistake of law doesn’t support a stop. Here, it was for riding a bicycle on the sidewalk in a mixed use area with one or two operating businesses on the block that weren’t boarded up, and the ordinance applies only … Continue reading
Lawfare: The FBI Impersonates the Media: Some of the Rules Governing Cyber-Subterfuge
Lawfare: The FBI Impersonates the Media: Some of the Rules Governing Cyber-Subterfuge by Andy Wang: The developing story of the FBI’s impersonation of journalists is, in a way, really the story of Timberline high school in Washington State. In June … Continue reading
Chicago Tribune: New ‘explosives screening team’ deploys to River North CTA station
Chicago Tribune: New ‘explosives screening team’ deploys to River North CTA station by Tony Briscoe: The Chicago Police Department’s newly formed “mobile explosives screening team” swabbed the bags of some passengers entering a River North train station Thursday morning as … Continue reading
The Atlantic: Now the GOP Must Choose: Mass Surveillance or Privacy?
The Atlantic: Now the GOP Must Choose: Mass Surveillance or Privacy? by Conor Friedersdorf: Before May, Congress has no alternative but to endorse or end NSA spying on the phone calls of virtually every American. What does the new party … Continue reading
WaPo: The controversial device that helped catch alleged Philadelphia abductor
WaPo: The controversial device that helped catch alleged Philadelphia abductor by Abby Ohlheiser: Delvin Barnes was arrested with the help of a GPS device planted in his Ford Taurus by the dealership.
NYTimes: Georgia: Lawsuit Over Taser Death Is Settled
NYTimes: Georgia: Lawsuit Over Taser Death Is Settled by Alan Blinder: The family of a man who died after being stunned up to 13 times with Taser devices during his arrest settled a lawsuit against East Point, an Atlanta suburb, … Continue reading
Techdirt: The Exception Is The Rule: How The Government’s ‘Good Faith’ Efforts Are Destroying The Fourth Amendment
Techdirt: The Exception Is The Rule: How The Government’s ‘Good Faith’ Efforts Are Destroying The Fourth Amendment: While there has been some progress towards a restoration of the nation’s Fourth Amendment rights, there have also been several steps back. A … Continue reading
AR: Talking about drug deal on phone in convenience store overheard by officer led to plain view
“Arkansas State Police Trooper Stephen Briggs was inside the Valero convenience store on Colonel Glenn Road in Little Rock to get something to drink when he overheard a man on his cell phone say that he had lost $3200. The … Continue reading
Techdirt: Documents Obtained By The ACLU Show NSA’s Inability To Prevent Collection Of US Persons’ Data And Communications
Techdirt: Documents Obtained By The ACLU Show NSA’s Inability To Prevent Collection Of US Persons’ Data And Communications: from the sued-into-translucence dept The ACLU has freed up more NSA documents — again as the result of a FOIA lawsuit. Some … Continue reading
WaPo: Magistrate issues arrest warrants for 17 years but is new to “probable cause”
WaPo: Magistrate issues arrest warrants for 17 years but is new to “probable cause” by Orin Kerr: Here’s a remarkable case from the Ohio Supreme Court, State v. Hoffman, involving an unconstitutional arrest warrant. The defendant was arrested for a … Continue reading
Lawfare: Recap of Yesterday’s Argument in the Section 215 Case
Lawfare: Recap of Yesterday’s Argument in the Section 215 Case by Wells Bennett: Below you’ll find a recap of yesterday morning’s argument in Klayman v. Obama. A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit yesterday considered a key challenge to the … Continue reading
CA3: Failure to include attachment when SW served didn’t make it overbroad
The failure to serve an attachment with the search warrant is not fatal despite it providing particularity. It was presented to the USMJ, and the officer’s conduct was otherwise objectively reasonable. The question of good faith does not even have … Continue reading
Nexus: Drug dealer’s homes usually have the stash
Nexus to defendant’s house for a drug search warrant was established by his leaving his house to do drug deals then coming right home. It’s common for drug dealers to keep their stash at home. State v. Hogan, 2014 Tenn. … Continue reading