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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: September 2015
D.Kan.: “What is a high crime area?” is nebulous
On the totality, the officers had reasonable suspicion. Breaking them down, however, some were afforded less weight, such as “what is a high crime area?” Here, the reasonable suspicion ripened into probable cause and permitted a search incident. United States … Continue reading
TN: Failure to prove def’s nexus to target property made search without PC
The state failed to prove nexus to this property for the search warrant. There was probable cause to search the property of defendant, but what was lacking was his connection to this property. “It provided more than sufficient probable cause … Continue reading
D.Mont.: An unauthorized driver of a rental car still has standing to challenge its search as long as permission was given by the renter
An unauthorized driver of a rental car still has standing to challenge its search as long as permission was given by the renter. United States v. Pinex, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118558 (D.Mont. September 4, 2015). Packages in the mail … Continue reading
DE: When collective knowledge is used, the first with PC or RS must be called at suppression hearing; hearsay not admissible
When the state relies on the collective knowledge doctrine, it is required to call the officers involved in both ends of it. Merely having the searching officer testify to hearsay as to what the first officer did is inadequate, even … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: A mismatched license plate to the vehicle is more indicative of crime than other traffic offenses
A mismatched license plate to the vehicle is more indicative of crime than other traffic offenses. It is a reasonable suspicion warranting a patdown. “Such a risk was only heightened here because the ‘traffic violation’ at issue—using forged or stolen … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Rule 17 subpoena couldn’t be used for discovery for suppression hearing where nothing in particular was sought
Defendant’s Rule 17 subpoena for personnel files to the city police involved in a stop and search on an Amtrak train was quashed. There was no showing that it would produce evidence of any value at this point in the … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: 2255 gets hearing on IAC claim; court can’t say that waived issue was meritless or strategic
“Yet, as illustrated above, the record does not contain sufficient information from which the Court can find that a suppression motion would have been meritless. As a result, the Court concludes that an evidentiary hearing is required on this claim. … Continue reading
CA8: Qualified immunity because it was not clearly established in 2009 use of a Taser was unreasonable
It was not clearly established in 2009 that use of a Taser was unreasonable so the officers get qualified immunity. Here, it happened in jail when plaintiff refused to change into a jail uniform. Hollingsworth v. City of St. Ann, … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Warrant for seizure of pictures of def precluded seizure of pictures of others
The search warrant here authorized seizure of photographs that depicted defendant, but photos of others were seized, and they are suppressed for being outside the warrant. United States v. Williams, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117274 (N.D.Cal. September 1, 2015). Plainclothes … Continue reading
Fusion: Tech companies may be our best hope for resisting government surveillance
Fusion: Tech companies may be our best hope for resisting government surveillance by Ryan Calo:
W.D.Pa.: Long term pole camera surveillance of front of house valid
Suppression of long term pole camera surveillance of defendant’s front door almost summarily denied. United States v. Gilliam, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118511 (W.D.Pa. September 4, 2015):
D.Nev.: When a Mexican national was stopped, the time for a call to EPIC could be included in the reasonable length of stop
A call to the El Paso Intelligence Center about defendant who produced a Mexican passport was reasonably included in the length of the stop. Defendant was noticeably nervous, gave conflicting travel plans, and the license plate did not match the … Continue reading
OH1: A car listed on the search warrant could be searched away from the premises
“[*P7] Following the issuance of the warrant, RENU agents conducted surveillance on the residence at 3021 Cavanaugh Avenue. According to Deputy Kane, RENU agents would generally wait to execute a search warrant until an occupant left the targeted residence, especially … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: A series of furtive gestures was reasonable suspicion and permitted defendant’s patdown
A series of furtive gestures was reasonable suspicion and permitted defendant’s patdown. United States v. Pacheco, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117786 (S.D.Ohio September 3, 2015)*:
W.D.N.Y.: There’s no standing in a dilapidated building def occupies knowing it was de facto condemned
Defendant put a mattress in a dilapidated building that he knew the city wanted unoccupied because it was unsafe. Therefore, the court concludes he has no standing. United States v. Rounds, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117174 (W.D.N.Y. September 2, 2015):
AZ: A probation or parole search must be reasonable under the totality of circumstances; reasonable suspicion not required
A probation or parole search must be reasonable under the totality of circumstances, and the trial court erred in requiring reasonable suspicion. State v. Adair, 2015 Ariz. App. LEXIS 179 (September 3, 2015):
M.D.Pa.: It is a reasonable inference that drug dealers keep their stashes at home
It is a reasonable inference that drug dealers keep their stashes at home, and that supports a search warrant of their home. United States v. Kelly, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117523 (M.D.Pa. September 3, 2015):
MD: DUI arrest is generally justification for a search incident for the cause of intoxication
A DUI arrest is generally justification for a search incident of the interior of the vehicle for whatever made defendant intoxicated under Gant. “Although we may not be able reconcile these divergent holdings, it is clear that (1) an officer’s … Continue reading