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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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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: May 2015
New Law Review Article: Botnet Takedowns and the Fourth Amendment
New Law Review Article: Botnet Takedowns and the Fourth Amendment by Sam Zeitlin, 90 NYU Law Rev. No. 2 (May 2015). Abstract:
CA2: Virtually intentional frisk of wrong man was manifestly unreasonable
Defendant was stopped on the street in NYC because the officer thought that he was somebody else. Actually, it was fairly obvious that they didn’t look alike. Moreover, defendant produced a valid ID in his real name, and it was … Continue reading
FL2: Officers couldn’t pass gate with No Trespassing sign and mailbox outside fence to do a knock-and-talk
“We conclude that the detectives could not enter the property to conduct a knock and talk or to pursue a consensual encounter with Mr. Robinson without first obtaining his permission to enter the property. We reach this conclusion because the … Continue reading
Just Security: Scaremongering about the Patriot Act Sunset
Just Security: Scaremongering about the Patriot Act Sunset by Jameel Jaffer: In a last-ditch effort to scare lawmakers into preserving unpopular and much-abused surveillance authorities, the Senate Republican leadership and some intelligence officials are warning that allowing Section 215 of … Continue reading
The Hill: Administration moves to end bulk data collection
The Hill: Administration moves to end bulk data collection by Julian Hattem and Jordan Fabian: The Senate is preparing for a last-minute attempt to save expiring portions of the Patriot Act, but it may already be too late. The Obama … Continue reading
WaPo: Inspector General finds Justice Dept. slow to create privacy rules
WaPo: Inspector General finds Justice Dept. slow to create privacy rules by Ellen Nakashima: The Justice Department for seven years failed to implement a provision requiring it to create privacy rules for use of an intelligence-gathering tool authorized by the … Continue reading
AR: State implied consent law doesn’t bar SW for blood, following weight of authority
State law on implied consent states that a refusal means “no [other] test will be given” but that does not preclude a search warrant for blood, following the weight of authority. Metzner v. State, 2015 Ark. 222, 2015 Ark. LEXIS … Continue reading
IN: If product of illegal entry after knock-and-talk is removed from SW affidavit, PC still remained
Enduring surveillance of a duplex led to a knock-and-talk, and the officer was met with the overpowering smell of marijuana when the door was opened. Marijuana in plain view was seen on a table because the officer entered. Even redacting … Continue reading
Two on qualified immunity
City code enforcement officers do not get qualified immunity for seizure of unlicensed cars parked in his yard where they entered the property, and were doing an administrative seizure with no notice of appeal rights which were provided for by … Continue reading
WaPo: Senate rejects compromise bill on surveillance
WaPo: Senate rejects compromise bill on surveillance by Mike DeBonis and Ellen Nakashima: Senators left Capitol Hill early Saturday morning without taking action to extend or replace a controversial surveillance program set to expire at month’s end, paralyzed by a … Continue reading
AP: Justice Department issues policy on domestic drone use
Justice Department UAS Policy AP: Justice Department issues policy on domestic drone use The Justice Department is acknowledging that the FBI, DEA and other federal law enforcement agencies are likely to make increasing use of unmanned aerial drones in the … Continue reading
The Hill: McConnell’s NSA gambit fails
The Hill: McConnell’s NSA gambit fails by Jordain Carney and Julian Hattem: Mitch McConnell staged an epic gamble over U.S. spying powers — and lost. The Republican leader pledged to keep senators in Washington through the weekend to finish work … Continue reading
Politico: What happens if the PATRIOT Act expires?
Politico: What happens if the PATRIOT Act expires? by Alex Byers and Kate Tummarello: Officials in Washington are warning of a future in which key surveillance provisions are allowed to lapse. With the Senate’s failure to secure a deal to … Continue reading
WaPo: Senate rejects compromise bill on surveillance
WaPo: Senate rejects compromise bill on surveillance by Mike DeBonis and Ellen Nakashima: The measure would have ended the NSA’s bulk collection of private phone records. Senators aren’t convening again until May 31, just hours before the legal authority for … Continue reading
Daily Report: Barbershop Raid Case Settles After Full Appeals Court Orders Mediation
Daily Report: Barbershop Raid Case Settles After Full Appeals Court Orders Mediation by Alyson Palmer: A civil rights case over a raid on a Florida barbershop has settled for $125,000, leaving unresolved a federal appeals question about whether law enforcement … Continue reading
OH8: Def’s frisk before being put in back of police car for no apparent reason was unreasonable
After the driver of a car was arrested, the passenger was transportation-less because the car was being towed. He was going to call for a ride. For no apparent reason, the officer put him in the patrol car and patted … Continue reading