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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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Section 1983 Blog -
"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: November 2015
CA7: § 1983 SOL starts from the date of the search and seizure
Plaintiff was arrested, searched, prosecuted, and acquitted. He claimed illegal search and seizure and police theft of property, but the claim was filed 2½ years after the occurrence, and Illinois has a two year limitations period. “Claims for wrongful search … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Asking a man on the street to pull up shirt to expose waistband is not a seizure
Under D.C.Cir. case law, an officer driving by a person in a high crime area and asking him to pull up his shirt or expose his waistband is not a seizure. Here, officers did that with a small group and … Continue reading
CA10: Unlawful provoked flight to make an arrest supported criminal civil rights violation against officer
Defendant was a sheriff indicted in Albuquerque for excessive force during an off-duty road rage incident. The victim’s unlawful arrest was based on provoked flight caused by the sheriff. There was also 404(b) evidence of similar occurrences. He was sentenced … Continue reading
NM: Lack of prior notice of a sobriety checkpoint not fatal; suppression reversed
“The State of New Mexico appeals from an order granting a motion to suppress evidence based on an unconstitutional sobriety checkpoint. The State raises a single issue on appeal: whether the lack of advance publicity makes a sobriety checkpoint unconstitutional, … Continue reading
MO: PC for personal quantity in console not PC for trunk under automobile exception
Defendant was stopped for potentially being under the influence, and he passed FST’s. The officer had him in the patrol car asking questions, and defendant admitted to Suboxone in the console. Still, for the automobile exception, the court finds no … Continue reading
The Hill: GOP chairman joins with Dems on bill to limit cellphone spying
The Hill: GOP chairman joins with Dems on bill to limit cellphone spying by Julian Hattem: The Republican head of the House Oversight Committee is teaming up with a pair of Democrats to try to enact new limits on the … Continue reading
The Hill: Blog: Drones are a national security nightmare
The Hill: Blog: Drones are a national security nightmare by Joel D. Joseph: The Federal Aviation Administration is rushing to pass regulations of drones within the next thirty days so that drones can be under your Christmas tree. Frankly, we … Continue reading
TN: Motion for return of property doesn’t require a motion to suppress and can come after judgment
A state motion for return of property does not require a motion to suppress. “Additionally, the State’s argument that the trial court lacks jurisdiction because the judgment has become final is misplaced. The Defendant is not seeking to challenge his … Continue reading
GA: If the dog sniff comes before dispatch reports back on the DL check, the dog sniff is valid (4-3)
A dog sniff of a car while waiting for the driver’s and passenger’s DL info to come back did not in any way extend the stop, so it’s valid. (4-3) State v. Allen, 2015 Ga. LEXIS 789 (Nov. 2, 2015), … Continue reading
TechDirt: Court Tosses Bogus Wiretapping Charge Against Man Who Recorded Cops Who Raided His House
TechDirt: Court Tosses Bogus Wiretapping Charge Against Man Who Recorded Cops Who Raided His House by Tim Cushing: For many years, law enforcement agencies used (mostly outdated) wiretapping laws to justify arrests and prosecutions of citizens who recorded them during … Continue reading
Govt Technology: Does the Fourth Amendment Trump Your Locked Smartphone?
Govt Technology: Does the Fourth Amendment Trump Your Locked Smartphone? by Daniel Rothberg: Because of recent updates to the encryption on Google and Apple software, newly updated Androids and iPhones no longer can be unlocked — even if law enforcement … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Parolee with traffic warrants fleeing from car and tossing keys justified parole search of car
Las Vegas officers were randomly running license plates and they ran a Saturn’s plates on a Walgreen’s parking lot after the occupant went into the store. It showed that the owner had outstanding traffic warrants and was on parole. The … Continue reading
CA2: Uncle’s apparent authority over nephew’s room included under the mattress
Defendant stayed with his aunt and uncle in a room that everybody had access to when he wasn’t there. His uncle consented to a search of the room for a firearm when he wasn’t there. He didn’t contest the consent … Continue reading
UT: Police car’s overhead lights usually mean seizure to the motorist the police car is behind
A police car’s overhead lights can be ambiguous, but, to the motorist, they mean you are stopped and should not attempt to leave. It’s common knowledge the consequences of not staying stopped could be severe. Defendant was thus stopped, but … Continue reading
TX11: Invalid portion of warrant properly severed, but the cocaine was still admissible
Texas JP’s can’t issue evidentiary search warrants by statute. This was partially that and mostly for cocaine. The trial court properly severed the invalid portion and suppressed, and the cocaine was properly admitted. Van Spotwood v. State, 2015 Tex. App. … Continue reading
CA6: Officers’ civil assist ended up in stating a claim in the retaking of a car
Officers were on a civil assist in aiding repossession of a car that was involved in a family dispute going back and forth for a couple of years. “Viewing the record in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, we agree … Continue reading