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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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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: December 2014
Law.com/The Recorder: Judge Questions Legality of NSA Internet Surveillance
Law.com/The Recorder: Judge Questions Legality of NSA Internet Surveillance by Russ Todd: Central to the long-running challenge is whether there’s a distinction between human and automated searches. Since the gathering of “information” is also a search under Jones, WTH not?
NLJ: Asset Seizures Gone Wrong
NLJ: Asset Seizures Gone Wrong by Jenna Greene: Two judges rebuked the FTC, which defends its practices….In 2014, the FTC won asset freezes coupled with temporary restraining orders in 29 cases naming 145 companies and 82 individuals, a 45 percent … Continue reading
GA: Riley applied to a case not yet final; no GFE because no prior binding authority
A cell phone search in a DUI stop was suppressed under Riley, even though the search occurred long before Riley. The defendant was still litigating, and he hadn’t yet even been convicted. Also, no good faith exception for the muddled … Continue reading
CA5: Finding drugs in a car was probable cause to search other containers in the car
Finding drugs in a car was probable cause to search other containers in the car, here a bag. United States v. Leal, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 23777 (5th Cir. February 7, 2014).* Defense counsel was not ineffective for withdrawing a … Continue reading
CA10: Failure to raise a Fourth Amendment claim in a forfeiture case precluded a later § 1983 case
Failure to raise a Fourth Amendment claim in a forfeiture case precluded a later § 1983 case over the same issue. Campbell v. City of Spencer, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 23700 (10th Cir. December 16, 2014):
EFF: Feds can’t get around Fourth Amendment via automated data capture
EFF: Feds can’t get around Fourth Amendment via automated data capture by Cyrus Farivar: At hearing for years-old digital snooping case, EFF and DOJ lawyers face off Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation OAKLAND, Calif.—A federal judge spent over four hours on … Continue reading
The Atlantic: When Cops Don’t Know the Law
The Atlantic: When Cops Don’t Know the Law by Garrett Epps: On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that police stops are legal when the officer has a ‘reasonable suspicion’ that a law is being broken-even if that law doesn’t exist.
WaPo: Your police raid outrage of the day
WaPo: Your police raid outrage of the day by Radley Balko: Police stage a violent raid on a depressed man because he didn’t answer the door, then charge him with resisting arrest.
WaPo: German researchers discover a flaw that could let anyone listen to your cell calls
WaPo: German researchers discover a flaw that could let anyone listen to your cell calls by Craig Timberg: German researchers have discovered security flaws that could let hackers, spies and criminals listen to private phone calls and intercept text messages … Continue reading
Just Security: In 2007, One Judge Said No to the NSA
Just Security: In 2007, One Judge Said No to the NSA by Patrick C. Toomey: Last week, the government quietly released a new cache of court filings and orders from late 2006 and early 2007 that together reveal a watershed … Continue reading
TechDirt: Google Files Legal Challenge To Attorney General Jim Hood’s Subpoenas
TechDirt: Google Files Legal Challenge To Attorney General Jim Hood’s Subpoenas: from the well,-well dept This story sure escalated in a hurry. Following all the news of the MPAA’s tight relationship with Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, Google has made … Continue reading
MD: A motion for return of property can’t include a damages claim; that’s a separate action
A motion for return of seized property can’t include a claim for damages; it’s only for return of property that the owner believes he or she is entitled to. A separate action has to be filed for that. Bord v. … Continue reading
JDSupra: Drone on Drones: New Court Decision Reflects Shifting Views on Privacy in Public
JDSupra: Drone on Drones: New Court Decision Reflects Shifting Views on Privacy in Public by Jordan Ferguson & Benjamin Hampton: Whenever drone policy is raised as a topic, privacy concerns follow close behind it as a discussion point. The idea … Continue reading
WaPo: Volokh: Two district courts adopt the mosaic theory of the Fourth Amendment
WaPo: Volokh: Two district courts adopt the mosaic theory of the Fourth Amendment by Orin Kerr: Regular readers will recall the mosaic theory of the Fourth Amendment introduced by the DC Circuit in United States v. Maynard, by which law … Continue reading
M.D.Ga.: Def’s probation search of gun safe was with RS of drugs, even if door had to be peeled
Officers had reasonable suspicion for a probation search of defendant’s house, and that included his gun safe. They could have peeled the door but didn’t, and defendant’s giving the combination was essentially moot because the officers could have broken in. … Continue reading
The Guardian: Video shows John Crawford’s girlfriend aggressively questioned after Ohio police shot him dead in Walmart
The Guardian: Video shows John Crawford’s girlfriend aggressively questioned after Ohio police shot him dead in Walmart by Jon Swaine: Video shows Ohio detective accusing her of lying and threatening her with jail Tasha Thomas only told of Crawford’s death … Continue reading
TechDirt: DOJ Leans On Old Laws And Even Older Cases To Argue Against Privacy Expectations In Cell Site Location Data
TechDirt: DOJ Leans On Old Laws And Even Older Cases To Argue Against Privacy Expectations In Cell Site Location Data by Tim Cushing: from the it’s-1979-all-over-again! dept Last month, AT&T entered an amicus brief in the US v. Quartavious Davis … Continue reading
AR: Hunting compliance stops in the field require RS; Hiibel distinguished
This is a game warden stop of a duck hunter. The state argued, and the court agreed, that any confrontation between a game warden and the public amounted to a stop based on the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Hunting … Continue reading
D.N.J.: No REP in a burner phone def didn’t claim he used and wasn’t subscribed to anybody
This defendant has no reasonable expectation of privacy in somebody else’s cell phone or the records of its use. He never used it or claimed any interest in it. He also lacks any standing in an unsubscribed burner phone. The … Continue reading