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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: February 2015
Gizmodo: How the Silk Road Trial Could Lead to a Dangerous Legal Precedent
Gizmodo: How the Silk Road Trial Could Lead to a Dangerous Legal Precedent by Kate Knibbs: The Silk Road trial is over. A jury found Ross Ulbricht guilty on all seven charges, including money laundering, drug trafficking, and the “kingpin” … Continue reading
S.D.Cal.: No REP in a cell phone call by an inmate from inside a prison
The government had wiretaps on cell phones used inside a prison to conduct drug sales and collect “taxes” on those drug sales. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a cell phone conversation coming from inside a prison by … Continue reading
IN: Search of a pill bottle incident to an arrest for driving without a DL is found to be unreasonable under the Indiana Constitution [reversed]
Search of a pill bottle incident to an arrest for driving without a license is found to be unreasonable under the Indiana Constitution. Garcia v. State, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 50 (February 3, 2015), but reversed: Garcia v. State, 2016 … Continue reading
MA: Egregious police conduct can confer target standing, but this case just doesn’t measure up
Egregious police conduct can confer target standing, but this case just doesn’t measure up. Commonwealth v. Santiago, 470 Mass. 574, 24 N.E.3d 560 (2015): We reaffirm the view stated in Scardamaglia, 410 Mass. at 380, that in a case where … Continue reading
Miscellany
Defendant’s cell phone search prior to Riley comported with existing Fifth Circuit case law, so Davis good faith exception applies. United States v. Steric, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12340 (N.D.Tex. February 2, 2015).* The affidavits for search warrants provided probable … Continue reading
CA10: Qualified immunity, clearly established law, and tasering as excessive force
Qualified immunity, clearly established law, and tasering as excessive force. Aldaba v. Pickens, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 1822 (10th Cir. February 4, 2015): B. Clearly Established Law Having held that the alleged facts regarding the initial taser strike would be … Continue reading
IL: Stop of man walking on median of divided highway justified by community caretaking function
Defendant’s stop was based on the community caretaking function because he was walking on the median of a divided highway approaching evening on a hot summer day and there was no apparent reason for that. His conviction of resisting, however, … Continue reading
National Journal: Few Privacy Limitations Exist on How Police Use Drones
National Journal: Few Privacy Limitations Exist on How Police Use Drones by Kaveh Waddell: Only 14 states require law enforcement get a warrant to use drones for surveillance.
The Atlantic: Who Should See Recordings From Police Bodycams?
The Atlantic: Who Should See Recordings From Police Bodycams? by Conor Friedsdorf: LOS ANGELES—With the LAPD giving bodycams to all of its police officers, policymakers in this city are confronting some thorny questions about the footage. Say a woman is … Continue reading
US News: New Mexico Man Given Forced Colonoscopy by Cops Wins $1.6 Million Settlement
US News: New Mexico Man Given Forced Colonoscopy by Cops Wins $1.6 Million Settlement by Steven Nelson Police and doctors allegedly committed ‘medical anal rape, numerous times over a 12-hour period.’
N.D.Tex.: DEA pharmacy subpoena not overbroad and HIPAA exempt
Two related opinions, same day same case: DEA administrative subpoena does not need to be based on probable cause to be enforceable. It can be overbroad and burdensome, but the government agreed to limit this one. United States v. Zadeh, … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Summers doesn’t prohibit a search of a defendant near execution of a search warrant when there is probable cause for search of person
Summers doesn’t prohibit a search of a defendant near execution of a search warrant when there is probable cause for a search of his person. United States v. Matlock, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 181607 (W.D.Tenn. October 24, 2014). Defendant was … Continue reading
WOAI Radio: Bill in Legislature Would Mandate Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients
WOAI Radio (Texas): Bill in Legislature Would Mandate Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients by Jim Forsyth: An old argument has roared back to life in Texas, as a prominent Republican lawmaker has introduced a bill requiring that welfare recipients undergo … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Entry to find teenage sex slave was on exigent circumstances
Defendant is charged with sex trafficking of a minor. The minor’s aunt called 911 to report that she was held for prostitution, and the police were working to find her. The entry into defendant’s apartment was on exigent circumstances to … Continue reading
CA11: Def’s silence when driver was asked to consent to search of a bag on passenger side floorboard was apparent authority
Defendant had standing to contest the search of his bag in a car, even though he wouldn’t have standing in the rest of the car. The driver had apparent authority to consent to a search of the bag and it … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Saying in Spanish “allow me to search your car,” rather than “please” was not consensual at immigration checkpoint
Defendant was stopped at the immigration checkpoint at Sarita, Texas. The license plate came back as flagged, so they more closely looked at the vehicle and asked for consent. “The Interpreter at the hearing noted that the Spanish phrase [used … Continue reading
Scientific American: Radar Makes All Houses Glass
Scientific American: Radar Makes All Houses Glass by Larry Greenemeier: Law enforcement agencies have handheld radar that can “see” through walls via RF signals, raising Fourth Amendment concerns.
AP: Traveler sues TSA after 20-hour detention
AP: Traveler sues TSA after 20-hour detention: PHILADELPHIA – A traveler detained for more than 20 hours after a search of energy bars and a sports watch in his carry-on bag at an airport has sued the Transportation Security Administration … Continue reading
Politico: Official: NSA phone records surveillance could end in June
Politico: Official: NSA phone records surveillance could end in June by Josh Gerstein: A controversial program that collects data on billions of telephone calls to, from and within the U.S. will shut down if the legal authority for it runs … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Ignoring a Border Patrol officer near the border is a factor in reasonable suspicion of alien smuggling
Ignoring a Border Patrol officer near the border is a factor in reasonable suspicion of alien smuggling. United States v. Juarez-Olmedo, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12167 (S.D.Tex. February 3, 2015). The officer was responding to a shots fired call at … Continue reading