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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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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)
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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: January 2015
BLT & NYT: Feds Reveal New Details About Secret Database of Phone Records
BLT: Feds Reveal New Details About Secret Database of Phone Records by Zoe Tillman: The U.S. Department of Justice, forced by a judge to reveal information about a secret law enforcement database of phone records, on Thursday disclosed new details … Continue reading
Cal.4: DV improper in state § 1983 case; 14 detention of guests at house at time of raid was likely unreasonable, and no QI
Plaintiff had a big annual Halloween party at his Orange County mansion that the neighbors always complained about. This one was called “Casino Night,” so the OCSO decided to get a search warrant and raid the place with the SWAT … Continue reading
WaPo: Holder limits seized-asset sharing process that split billions with local, state police
WaPo: Holder limits seized-asset sharing process that split billions with local, state police by Robert O’Harrow Jr., Sari Horwitz and Steven Rich: Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Friday barred local and state police from using federal law to … Continue reading
AR censures judge for issuing warrants from the bench without PC
Ark. Dem-Gaz: District judge censured for rude behavior, exceeding authority by Gavin Lesnick: According to the letter, Van Hook on four occasions issued warrants from the bench without any probable cause from law enforcement or a prosecutor. In one case, … Continue reading
MS: No requirement that owner of property be named in a SW
Neither the Fourth Amendment nor the state constitution require that the owner of property be named in the search warrant. The factual dispute over whether a signed warrant was present at the search was found against the defendant, who also … Continue reading
CA7 & Cal.1: GPS placed in 2011 saved by GFE; one case a triple murder
When the GPS was put on defendant’s car in 2011 before Jones, binding precedent said that it was lawful, so the good faith exception applies. United States v. Taylor, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 601 (7th Cir. January 14, 2015); People … Continue reading
IA: Burnt aluminum foil in plain view in a car is probable cause for a search
Burnt aluminum foil in plain view in a car is probable cause for a search. State v. Johannes, 2015 Iowa App. LEXIS 25 (January 14, 2015). Officers assembled outside a hotel room after neighbors complained that there was yelling and … Continue reading
Forbes: What Good Is A Pot-Sniffing Dog When Pot Is Legal?
Forbes: What Good Is A Pot-Sniffing Dog When Pot Is Legal? by Jacob Sullum: Testifying before a House subcommittee last year, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration warned that marijuana legalization is bad for dogs. DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart … Continue reading
WaPo: The flashbang menace
WaPo: The flashbang menace by Radley Balko: The common use of flashbang grenades has put officer safety above the safety of the citizens the police are supposed to serve. In my hometown, no less:
NYTimes: Holder Fortifies Protection of News Media’s Phone Records, Notes or Emails
NYTimes: Holder Fortifies Protection of News Media’s Phone Records, Notes or Emails By Matt Apuzzo: Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday eliminated what journalism groups worried could be used as a loophole in the rules governing how and … Continue reading
CA11: Abduction from the Dominican Republic to Florida for trial did not deny jurisdiction to try offense
Abduction from the Dominican Republic to Florida for trial did not violate extradition treaty because extradition is only one way to get a person back to the U.S. United States v. Odoni, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 502 (11th Cir. January … Continue reading
CA4: Use of a drug dog for a walk-through of a house of one on supervised release violates Fourth Amendment
The use of a drug dog for a walk-through of a house of one on supervised release is suppressed, and it was contrary to precedent, so no good faith exception. United States v. Hill, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 499 (4th … Continue reading
Reason.com: Why the Prosecution of Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht is “The Most Important Trial in America”
Reason.com: Why the Prosecution of Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht is “The Most Important Trial in America” by Nick Gillespie. Pay attention if you care about due process, Fourth Amendment protections against illegal searches, the limits of government surveillance, and … Continue reading
D.N.J.: State trial judge’s suppression of a search under the automobile exception is not binding on the federal government because of dual sovereignty
State trial judge’s suppression of a search under the automobile exception is not binding on the federal government because of dual sovereignty. This court does not suppress. State’s interpretation of exigency for an automobile search is different than required by … Continue reading
CA8: Drug dog was on the scene of speeding stop immediately; sniff was valid
Defendant was on a motorcycle. Before the stop even occurred, the officer called for a drug dog. When the canine officer heard of the stop, he came to the scene. Defendant refused consent to search, and the drug dog was … Continue reading
OH2: Jaywalking supports a stop but not a frisk
Jaywalking supports a stop but not a frisk. State v. Millerton, 2015-Ohio-34, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 31 (2d Dist. January 9, 2015). Probable cause cuts off a state malicious prosecution and § 1983 action. Henderson v. City of Euclid, 2015-Ohio-15, … Continue reading
The Nation: It’s Not Just the Cops
The Nation: It’s Not Just the Cops by Jonathan Rapping: Public defenders know that the trouble with our justice system extends far beyond abusive policing.