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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: October 2015
D.R.I.: Receiving three packages from China over time was not probable cause
Defendant received three packages over time from China and the Postal Inspector admitted there was no probable cause after receipt of the second, and the court finds there wasn’t for the third either. China may be an exporter of controlled … Continue reading
VI: Vehicle matching description of car in robbery fleeing and crashing into police car is PC for stop
Officers had probable cause to stop defendant’s vehicle as being involved in a robbery. They set up a “choke point” on the flight route away and saw the vehicle, and the driver fled from multiple attempts to stop it. Then … Continue reading
OH7: Burning MJ coming from an apartment is a misdemeanor and not sufficient exigency to enter
Police answered a loud music call at 5 am in an apartment building, and they could smell burning marijuana outside defendant’s apartment door. Burning marijuana is a misdemeanor and not sufficient exigency for a police entry. A 1995 Ohio case … Continue reading
D.Neb.: A mere passenger in a car used in a robbery has no standing to challenge the search
Riding in a car to a robbery is not a “sufficiently close connection to the car” to give standing. There was at least reasonable suspicion for the stop based on the robbery call, and then probable cause for their arrest. … Continue reading
San Diego Union-Tribune: Feds say border agent harassed brother’s accuser
San Diego Union-Tribune: Feds say border agent harassed brother’s accuser by Kristina Davis: Border Patrol supervisor charged with targeting man who accused family member of molestation…A U.S. Border Patrol supervisor is accused of using his law enforcement authority to repeatedly … Continue reading
NYTimes: Obama Won’t Seek Access to Encrypted User Data
NYTimes: Obama Won’t Seek Access to Encrypted User Data by Nicole Perlroth and David E. Sanger: The Obama administration has backed down in its bitter dispute with Silicon Valley over the encryption of data on iPhones and other digital devices, … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Seizure of a computer under a warrant authorizes its search, even after the 14 day window
Seizure of a computer under a warrant authorizes its search, even after the 14 day window in the warrant. Phone conversations between defendant and his lawyer over the jail phone system were not subject to attorney-client privilege because there was … Continue reading
WI: Police had independent source of information of CP to search computer seized in connection with wife’s suicide investigation
Defendant’s wife allegedly committed suicide. In the investigation, the police interviewed their daughter and she said that her mother was using her computer just before her death. The computer was seized as a part of the suicide investigation. Later the … Continue reading
AP (via WTOP): Private database lets police skirt license plate data limits
AP (via WTOP): Private database lets police skirt license plate data limits by Tami Abdollah: For years, police nationwide have used patrol car-mounted scanners to automatically photograph and log the whereabouts of peoples’ cars, uploading the images into databases they’ve … Continue reading
WaPo: Police withhold videos despite vows of transparency
WaPo: Police withhold videos despite vows of transparency by Kimberly Kindy and Julie Tate: But officers investigated in fatal shootings are routinely given access to body camera footage.
TechDirt: Defendants Counter Government’s Arguments That Appeals Court Should Treat Cellphones As ‘Personal Homing Beacons’
TechDirt: Defendants Counter Government’s Arguments That Appeals Court Should Treat Cellphones As ‘Personal Homing Beacons’ by Tim Cushing. A couple of weeks ago, the government petitioned the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals for an en banc rehearing of its decision … Continue reading
NPR: In A First, Border Agent Indicted For Killing Mexican Teen Across Fence
NPR: In A First, Border Agent Indicted For Killing Mexican Teen Across Fence by John Burnett: On Friday, in a federal courtroom in Tucson, Ariz., an agent of the U.S. Border Patrol for the first time will be arraigned on … Continue reading
MO: Omission from affidavit that CI was “working off a case” not material–it’s virtually a given
An alleged material omission for Franks purposes was not material because adding it in would essentially be misleading. Telling the issuing magistrate that the CI was “working off a case” isn’t really required under Franks because that’s usually a given … Continue reading
M.D.N.C.: Refusal to consent during knock-and-talk when smell of MJ was strong and a yell back inside was exigency
Officers did a knock-and-talk and they could smell marijuana before the knock. When defendant opened the door, the smell was stronger. He refused to consent and refused entry. He turned and yelled something inside and came outside. When he pulled … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Robert Durst case: One does not lose REP in a hotel room by registering under an alias
Robert Durst was believed to be on the run after the HBO series “The Jinx,” where he allegedly admitted a connection to a 10 year old homicide in Los Angeles. He was found by the FBI in the Marriott in … Continue reading
Wired: California Now Has the Nation’s Best Digital Privacy Law
Wired: California Now Has the Nation’s Best Digital Privacy Law by Kim Zetter CALIFORNIA CONTINUED ITS long-standing tradition for forward-thinking privacy laws today when Governor Jerry Brown signed a sweeping law protecting digital privacy rights. The landmark Electronic Communications Privacy … Continue reading
NC: Federal civil rights 12(b)(6) dismissal not “adjudication on the merits” for collateral estoppel in state court
Dismissal of a Fourth Amendment civil rights claim under the federal heightened pleading standard was not an “adjudication on the merits” for collateral estoppel in state court. Fox v. Johnson, 2015 N.C. App. LEXIS 814 (October 6, 2015):