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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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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: January 2016
AP: Illinois, Other States Debate Laws for Police Videos
AP: Illinois, Other States Debate Laws for Police Videos by Ivan Moreno, ABC: The yearlong delay before the release of a video showing a white Chicago police officer fatally shooting a black teenager has Illinois lawmakers facing the same question … Continue reading
D.N.H.: Seizure of a pseudo-fireman’s camera for impersonating a first responder didn’t violate First or Fourth Amendments [Updated: aff’d 12/23/16]
Seizure of the named plaintiff photographer’s camera for evidence of his impersonating a first responder at the scene of a fatal accident for potential proof of the offense failed to state a claim under the First or Fourth Amendments. Plaintiff … Continue reading
IA: Video didn’t support officer’s version of stop; no RS and suppressed
The officer testified that defendant crossed the centerline of a gravel road and came at him, and that was the basis of the stop. “Officer Van Gundy stated he ‘slowed down and pulled to the right’ because he was afraid … Continue reading
WaPo: Radley Balko’s “The Watch” Blog: This week in drug raids
WaPo: Radley Balko’s “The Watch” Blog: This week in drug raids:
E.D.Tex.: Ulterior motive for stop irrelevant where there is objective cause
The stop had a factual basis for a traffic offense even though the officer omitted from his report that the real reason was the DEA requested him to come up with a reason. “That the officer may have had ulterior … Continue reading
TN: Crime scene personnel permitted to enter under initial exigency of a beating with a crowbar
Crime scene personnel were responding to the initial call of a potential murder in the house, and they were all permitted in by the initial exigency. State v. Hutchison, 2016 Tenn. LEXIS 1 (Jan. 14, 2016):
MO: Even though SI was well after Gant, state hadn’t overruled prior authority, so David GFE applies
Even though Gant was decided in 2009, and Davis good faith post-Gant was decided in 2011, and the search incident here was in 2012, the good faith exception would be applied to save an unreasonable search incident because the state … Continue reading
MA: SW for cell phone not always limited like SW for premises
The search warrant for defendant’s cell phone for receiving threats did not have to be limited to text messages alone. The warrant could be quite broad. The court engages in an interesting discussion of differences between physical and digital searches. … Continue reading
CA11: CI’s trip was not predictive but still [barely] enough to show reliability
The informant’s tip here was enough to show reliability, even though only readily observable facts were relied upon. “In this case, the tip did not predict Brown’s behavior; it only provided past or present information. As such, the tip is … Continue reading
OH12: A 911 butt call linked to defendant’s address justifies a police response to the house to at least check
A 911 butt call linked to defendant’s address justifies a police response to the house to at least check on the call. It’s the same as a 911 hangup call which also justifies a response. State v. Jones, 2016-Ohio-67, 2016 … Continue reading
CityLab: A Las Vegas Case Shows Why Police Body Cameras Are So Important
CityLab: A Las Vegas Case Shows Why Police Body Cameras Are So Important by Brenton Mock: Video footage helped bring federal charges against a former officer who beat up a woman he accused of being a prostitute. ArsTechnica: Body cam … Continue reading
WaPo: You may be powerless to stop a drone from hovering over your own yard
WaPo: You may be powerless to stop a drone from hovering over your own yard by Andrea Peterson and Matt McFarland. The story of a Kentucky man who shot down a drone over his land getting prosecuted and sued in … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Withheld video of CPD shooting revealed during trial leads to new trial, attorney’s fees, and resignations
Plaintiffs are entitled to a new trial and attorneys fees for litigating the mid-trial disclosure of a CPD video of decedent’s shooting in this Fourth Amendment excessive force case. The City denied all along there was a video, and the … Continue reading
FL3: Police denied SW of a box for lack of nexus x-rayed it finding a gun; then SW issued
Defendant abandoned any reasonable expectation of privacy in a black box he took from his home and placed in a neighbor’s trash receptacle while there was a fire next door. The officer saw him do it, got permission from the … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Cell phone likely had evidence on it and police saw it in plain view and could seize it to get SW
Defendant and his wife had an argument about him communicating with underage girls, and he left the house and she called the police. The phone was in plain view in the house, it had apparent evidence on it, and it … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Car could have been left on residential street and not towed and inventoried
Defendant’s car would have been left on a residential street, but the officers impounded it for “caretaking.” The court finds the rationale presented by the officer and her evasive demeanor that the vehicle could have been vandalized or towed by … Continue reading
Just Security: Content Is Content, No Matter How Small
Just Security: Content Is Content, No Matter How Small by Jeffrey Vagle: Recently, Orin Kerr and I had a brief conversation on Twitter regarding the Fourth Amendment and the content/non-content distinction. Specifically, Orin asked those of us who subscribe to … Continue reading
CA11: Unarmed, compliant, and nonresisting arrestee shot in the back while lying on the ground was excessive force and violates clearly established law
Unarmed, compliant, and nonresisting arrestee shot in the back while lying on the ground was excessive force and violates clearly established law. Denial of qualified immunity denied. The officer’s subjective belief that force was necessary doesn’t carry any weight when … Continue reading