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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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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: June 2015
E.D.Mich.: If you’re rejected driving to Canadian customs, turning around and going back is still a U.S. border crossing
A border search occurred where defendant attempted to enter Canada and was turned away on suspicion of manufacturing child pornography on cell phone videos. His cell phone was subjected to a border search at the U.S. border. His argument he … Continue reading
Nexus and searching the homes of alleged drug dealers: Two different outcomes
In two cases decided on the same day, two district courts, one in the Fifth Circuit and one in the Third, came to seemingly opposite conclusions on whether drug dealers would have evidence in their homes sufficient to satisfy the … Continue reading
Search warrant is not required for a DUI breath test
A search warrant is not required for a DUI breath test. United States v. Millner, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72645 (D.Md. June 3, 2015); Williams v. State, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 8566 (Fla. 5th DCA June 5, 2015).
TX1: A police officer contemplating a blood draw by search warrant is not obligated to inquire into the medical history of the suspect to predetermine reasonableness
A police officer contemplating a blood draw by search warrant is not obligated to inquire into the medical history of the suspect to predetermine reasonableness. Dromgoole v. State, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 5662 (Tex. App. – Houston (1st Dist.) June … Continue reading
Time: Feds Unveil Technology to Create ‘World Without Drunk Driving’
Time: Feds Unveil Technology to Create ‘World Without Drunk Driving’ by Dan Kedmey: Road safety advocates converged on Congress Thursday to promote a new set of blood alcohol sensors that could prevent drivers from operating their vehicles while intoxicated. The … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Affidavit for SW for cell phones in RICO conspiracy showed PC that phones were used for planning crimes
In a RICO conspiracy case, the affidavit for a search warrant for cell phones to look for evidence of defendant’s using cell phones to plan crimes adequately showed probable cause to believe evidence of their contact would be found on … Continue reading
PA: Computer file that had to be opened was not in “plain view”
Riley on cell phone searches applies to computer searches. Defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his files. He took his computer to Circuit City to have a DVD burner put on his computer, and the store technician decided … Continue reading
On the Media: Librarians vs. The PATRIOT ACT
On the Media: Librarians vs. The PATRIOT ACT, hosted by Bob Garfield and Brooke Gladstone, produced by Karen Duffin: Once called the “library provision,” Section 215 of the Patriot Act forced libraries to become headliners in the battle waged to … Continue reading
SD: Frisk of an accurately described panhandler didn’t allege a crime and was invalid
A call about a panhandler did not justify his frisk. While the call accurately described him, there was not crime at all. An accurate description alone isn’t corroboration of anything. The frisk was invalid. State v. Walter, 2015 SD 37, … Continue reading
CNN: New conservative legal challenge to NSA phone data program
CNN: New conservative legal challenge to NSA phone data program by Evan Perez: Washington (CNN)–The Obama administration’s effort to save the government’s access to bulk records of phone calls for national security investigations is running into a new conservative court … Continue reading
AZ: The community caretaking exception does not apply to homes
The community caretaking exception does not apply to homes, citing conflicting authorities. Here, defendant was believed by the police to have an excessive amount of mercury in his house, something not contraband. A firefighter trained in hazardous materials entered the … Continue reading
NY Bronx: Pawnbrokers can’t be compelled to upload all their acquisition information; becomes a general search without restraint
While pawnbrokers are regulated, they can’t be compelled to upload all their information about acquisitions into a database to make the NYPD’s job easier. What is to be uploaded is too broad, and that’s a general search. Collateral Loanbrokers Assn. … Continue reading
OH9: Where the car in which defendant was a passenger was going to be inventoried, def’s detention for officer safety was reasonable
The continued detention of the defendant passenger in a car, incidental to the stop of the driver, pending the inventory of the car was reasonable. The trial court resolved a fact dispute and concluded that defendant consented to a search … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Use of forensic software to search a computer in a child pornography case is not a general rummaging
The use of forensic software to search a computer in a child pornography case does not exceed the scope of search defined in the warrant, and it does not constitute a general rummaging. United States v. Perez, 2015 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
OR: State could not raise new argument in CoA after remand never developed in trial court
On remand from the Supreme Court, the state asserted an argument never made in the trial court, and it’s treated as waived since there was no factual development. The prior decision is adhered to. State v. Heater, 271 Or. App. … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: “Stalking horse” theory of police involvement in probation searches is apparently no longer valid
The “stalking horse” theory of police involvement in probation searches is apparently no longer valid. United States v. Flowers, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71673 (M.D.Pa. May 14, 2015):
AZ: 911 hang up call justified entry onto curtilage and look in windows when no one answered door
Police received a 911 hang up call, and the call back was unanswered. They are treated as emergencies, and two officers responded. No one answered the door, so they went to a window to look in, and a marijuana plant … Continue reading
CA3: Social guest without belongings on premises for day lacked standing; leaving open standing question for better facts later
Defendant was on the premises of another when the search occurred, but he was a social guest at the moment, and not an overnight guest with stuff there. The case law grants higher standing to an overnight guest. While it … Continue reading