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Recent Posts
- VA: 12 second question about drugs didn’t unreasonably prolong the stop that was going to take a while anyway
- E.D.Tenn.: Application for SW was considered in detention ruling
- TN: RS didn’t develop to continue stop; second stop based on first suppressed
- CA4: Traffic stop immediately became firearms investigation; suppressed
- CA10: Disagreement over spelling of street name didn’t make warrant fail particularity; GFE at least would apply
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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) -
“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: August 2015
D.P.R.: Failure to challenge standing finding in R&R is waiver
Defendant was found without standing to challenge a search of an apartment, and he didn’t contest that in the R&R, so that’s binding. He did challenge the search of his person, and the case is remanded for further consideration of … Continue reading
New Law Review Article: Drone Technology and the Fourth Amendment: Aerial Surveillance Precedent and Kyllo Do Not Account for Current Technology
New Law Review Article: Drone Technology and the Fourth Amendment: Aerial Surveillance Precedent and Kyllo Do Not Account for Current Technology by Veronica E. McKnight, 51 Cal. W. L. Rev. No. 2, Article 4 (2015).
WaPo: Federal appeals court: Drug dog that’s barely more accurate than a coin flip is good enough
WaPo: Federal appeals court: Drug dog that’s barely more accurate than a coin flip is good enough by Radley Balko: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued a troubling ruling about drug dogs last week. U.S. v. … Continue reading
NY Times: A.C.L.U. Sues Over Handcuffing of Boy, 8, and Girl, 9, in Kentucky School
NY Times: A.C.L.U. Sues Over Handcuffing of Boy, 8, and Girl, 9, in Kentucky School by Sheryl Gay Stolberg: The American Civil Liberties Union, seeking to spotlight the use of handcuffs to restrain young children who act out in school, … Continue reading
S.D.Ill.: Exigency still applied to entry into house day after a shooting where a possible victim unaccounted for
The day after a shootout, the police find another possible location for gunfire and enter the house under the emergency exception. The entry is reasonable because one person was unaccounted for and it was possible that person was inside. Observations … Continue reading
MA: Asking def what was in his mouth was a seizure without RS (it was a baggie of crack)
Officers encountered defendant on the street. He mumbled when he talked to them, and they asked what was in his mouth. That became a seizure. “We conclude that a reasonable person would not have felt free to terminate the encounter, … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: Inevitable discovery applies; def counsel overlooked suppression motion, but it wouldn’t have won
The state conceded that defense counsel’s failure to file a motion to suppress satisfied the performance prong of Strickland. At issue, however, was the prejudice prong, and that failure did not amount to prejudice because the evidence would have been … Continue reading
Reuters: Civil liberties groups: Freedom at stake in 2nd Circuit seized hard drive case
Reuters: Civil liberties groups: Freedom at stake in 2nd Circuit seized hard drive case by Alison Frankel:
Chicago Sun Times: Editorial: Laws need to catch up with drone technology
Chicago Sun Times: Editorial: Laws need to catch up with drone technology: Do we want somebody firing a gun from a drone in Chicago or elsewhere in Illinois, which is precisely what happened recently in Connecticut? That’s just one of … Continue reading
MD: DUI arrest supports SI for source
A DUI arrest provides probable cause that evidence of intoxication will be found in the vehicle, so a search incident to arrest is justified. Taylor v. State, 2015 Md. App. LEXIS 102 (July 30, 2015). Officers executing a search warrant … Continue reading
MT: Daily breath testing of persons as a condition of pretrial release for DUI offenses was not per se an unreasonable search
Daily breath testing of persons as a condition of pretrial release for DUI offenses was not per se an unreasonable search. Balanced with the state’s interest in preventing DUIs, it was reasonable. State v. Spady, 2015 MT 218, 2015 Mont. … Continue reading
CA4: Even GPS failed to prove a conspiracy, thereby requiring a wiretap
Even GPS tracking is not the end all be all of criminal investigation. GPS was shown to be an inadequate technique to tie together a conspiracy in needing a wiretap. United States v. Eccleston, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 13376 (4th … Continue reading
D.Md.: Strategic basis for waiving motion to suppress: it improved plea bargain
Defense counsel filed a colorable motion to suppress that here apparently improved defendant’s plea bargaining position. Thus it was reasonable to waive the motion for the plea, and there was no ineffective assistance. Walker v. United States, 2015 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: CSLI in mid-2014 was subject to GFE
The government’s warrantless collection of cell site location data in mid-2014 was not clearly contrary to any established law, so the government’s actions were in good faith. The court also follows the fact they were third-party records. United States v. … Continue reading
The Hill: Facial recognition quietly taking hold
The Hill: Facial recognition quietly taking hold By Mario Trujillo: There are no laws that expressly regulate the software.
NPR: A Lawyer’s Advice For Black Men At Traffic Stops: ‘Comply Now, Contest Later’
NPR: A Lawyer’s Advice For Black Men At Traffic Stops: ‘Comply Now, Contest Later’: It’s been nearly a year since a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American 18-year-old, in Ferguson, Mo. Since then, more deadly police … Continue reading
NYTimes: Training Officers to Shoot First, and He Will Answer Questions Later
NYTimes: Training Officers to Shoot First, and He Will Answer Questions Later by Matt Apuzzo: When police officers shoot people under questionable circumstances, William J. Lewinski often appears as an expert witness who says they had no choice but to … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Gas meter on side wall doesn’t mean side isn’t curtilage as to the police; look in window suppressed
The side wall of a house where the gas meter was was still curtilage. Just because the gas company is invited there doesn’t mean the police are. United States v. Conerd, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98629 (N.D.Iowa July 28, 2015): … Continue reading