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- 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
- CAAF: Information on computer stored in evidence room wasn’t stale
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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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General (many free):
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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: December 2015
OH11: Under a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty Russian website admins will give up U.S. IP addresses
“[¶2] The United States, Australia, and Russia are members of a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty whereby member nations share information about internet traffic on websites including IMGSRC.RU, a Russian file-sharing site known to U.S. Homeland Security as a repository for … Continue reading
Texas Lawyer: Identifying the Legal Boundaries of Employer’s GPS Use
Texas Lawyer: Identifying the Legal Boundaries of Employer’s GPS Use by Caleena Svatek: When using GPS tracking systems to track employee travel routes, recorded work time, safety, efficiency, and productivity, employers must ensure and be able to demonstrate that there … Continue reading
D.S.D.: Emergency entry on domestic call was unjustified where caller was outside uninjured
On a domestic battery call, when the police arrived one person was outside, having run out yelling “psycho” and the other was standing in the window of a bedroom. Police entry into the apartment was not justified by exigency because … Continue reading
MD: Dog sniff outside apt door didn’t violate curtilage or a reasonable expectation of privacy
A dog sniff outside an apartment door from a common hallway otherwise closed to those not living there did not violate curtilage or an expectation of privacy. Lindsey v. State, 2015 Md. App. LEXIS 171 (Dec. 16, 2015):
CA9: California MMJ card doesn’t immunize all marijuana SWs
Mere possession of a California MMJ card doesn’t render all search warrants for marijuana unreasonable as a matter of law. § 1983 case dismissed. Rocha v. County of Tulare, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 21999 (9th Cir. Dec. 17, 2015):
TechCrunch: The FAA’s Drone Registration Site Is Now Up And Running
TechCrunch: The FAA’s Drone Registration Site Is Now Up And Running by Frederic Lardinois: As promised, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched its drone registry [yesterday].
ABAJ: Federal judge says lawyer and client must pay $19K for filing baseless civil rights suit for false arrest
ABAJ: Federal judge says lawyer and client must pay $19K for filing baseless civil rights suit by Martha Neil. In a false arrest case, “The plaintiff’s lawyer should have known that the purported facts on which a civil rights suit … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Rodriguez violated where def told he was “good to go” but officer then said turn pockets inside out
The officer told defendant that he was “good to go” but sought consent to go through his pockets and then told him to turn the pockets inside out. That was a Rodriguez violation, and the motion to suppress is granted. … Continue reading
KY: Simmons error requires objection to preserve claim; no plain error because Fifth Amendment not self-executing
A Simmons error of use of defendant’s suppression hearing testimony showing standing and control over the place searched was not subject to plain error analysis. An objection is required. Commonwealth v. Taylor, 2015 Ky. LEXIS 2012 (Dec. 17, 2015):
Star-Ledger: “Extreme” racial disparity in local N.J. arrests, ACLU report finds
The Star-Ledger: “Extreme” racial disparity in local N.J. arrests, ACLU report finds by S.P. Sullivan: The New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is calling on the state attorney general to investigate racial disparities in low-level offense arrests … Continue reading
Electronic Frontier Foundation: EFF to Court: Lifetime GPS Tracking Violates the Fourth Amendment
Electronic Frontier Foundation: EFF to Court: Lifetime GPS Tracking Violates the Fourth Amendment by Jamie Williams: [L]ast week EFF filed an amicus brief with the United States Court of Appeal for the Seventh Circuit urging the court to strike down … Continue reading
The Nation: Opinion: The Biggest Threat to American Public Safety Is the American Police State
The Nation: Opinion: The Biggest Threat to American Public Safety Is the American Police State by Matthew Harwood: While it’s too soon to tell whether there has been an uptick in violent crime in the post-Ferguson period, no evidence connects … Continue reading
KY: DUI roadblock failed state’s well established standards
Kentucky DUI roadblock failed the standards adopted a decade ago, and the stop had to be suppressed. Some standards were complied with, but not enough to make the court comfortable with this one. Commonwealth v. Cox, 2015 Ky. LEXIS 2010 … Continue reading
D.Mass.: SW for computers includes cell phones; also, CDT computer search protocol rejected
A search warrant for computers also permitted seizure and search of smartphones without specifying them because they are computers. Defendants’ argument for the CDT search protocol is rejected as it was by the Ninth Circuit. United States v. Mulcahey, 2015 … Continue reading
CA4: Def did not comply with police commands and wasn’t seized until after he dropped his gun
Defendant was about to be seized when the police car pulled up behind his parked car with emergency lights and officers approached. He got out of his car with gun in hand, at first ignoring police commands, and then he … Continue reading
AL: Anonymous tip of obvious and easily obtained details was not PC
“[T]he anonymous tip upon which Detective Harrison relied merely provided a range of details relating to easily obtained facts and conditions existing at the time the tip was made. ‘[T]he anonymous tip did not contain facts which are ordinarily not … Continue reading
OH9: For appellate court to consider trial testimony on motion to suppress, motion to reopen or reconsider required
To get the appellate court to consider trial testimony to supplement the motion to suppress, it’s necessary to renew the motion in the trial court after that point. Otherwise, the appeal proceeds on what was developed at the suppression hearing. … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Nexus to crime showed on one phone but not another; second phone suppressed
Information that a cell phone was being used in drug trafficking was nexus to one phone for a search warrant. As to the other phone, probable cause is actually lacking, and the tracking of that phone is suppressed. United States … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Warrantless “peek” into iPhone5 produced 921 pages of information; suppressed because exclusionary rule should apply
The government’s border warrantless “peek” into defendant’s iPhone5 produced 921 pages of incriminating information. The “peek” was unreasonable and led to a search warrant that produced a lot more. Inevitable discovery is also not applied because the risk of data … Continue reading