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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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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)
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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
CA5: Protective sweep generally can go between a mattress and box springs
It is not unreasonable for an officer to conclude generally that a protective sweep between a mattress and box springs is necessary. Here, there were factual indications that somebody else might be in the room further supporting it. [And plenty … Continue reading
MA: State const. gives probationers more rights than parolees; parolee house search may occur on RS
“We conclude that art. 14 offers greater protection to parolees than does the Fourth Amendment. Article 14 does not, however, offer as much protection to parolees as it affords to probationers. Therefore, where a parole officer has reasonable suspicion to … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Forensic search of cell phone after SW’s expiration date not a constitutional violation here
Defendant was a Delta baggage employee accused of conspiring with others to ship firearms by air from Atlanta to NYC and bypassing TSA security. Search warrants were obtained for his cell phone and house. The forensic search of the cell … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Surrounding car on day old robbery report with no specific facts was without RS; suppressed
Officers approached defendant’s vehicle, completely without reasonable suspicion, looking for a robbery suspect from a robbery a day earlier. They surrounded the car, had their hands at their weapons at the ready, and told defendant to roll down the window. … Continue reading
WaPo: The new way police are surveilling you: Calculating your threat ‘score’
WaPo: The new way police are surveilling you: Calculating your threat ‘score’ by Justin Jouvenal: FRESNO, Calif. — While officers raced to a recent 911 call about a man threatening his ex-girlfriend, a police operator in headquarters consulted software that … Continue reading
Private search in the military: Military Times: Ask the Lawyer: Roommate reports marijuana stash
Military Times: Ask the Lawyer: Roommate reports marijuana stash by Mathew B. Tully: Q. My roommate found my stash of pot in our room and told our commander about it. Does that count as an unlawful search? A. Under Military … Continue reading
D.Minn.: No standing in the search of the person of another
Defendant’s motion to reopen the suppression motion for the third time is denied. He has no standing in the search of somebody else. United States v. Spencer, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174240 (D.Minn. Dec. 11, 2015). The officer ran LPNs … Continue reading
New law review: “How the Fourth Amendment and the Separation of Powers Rise (and Fall) Together”
Aziz Z. Huq, How the Fourth Amendment and the Separation of Powers Rise (and Fall) Together, 83 U.Chi.L.Rev. 101 (2016):
D.Nev.: Def had no REP in USPS Express Mail with fictitious names; PC for SW included def’s IP address checking tracking of packages on USPS website
US Postal Inspectors found out that defendant was mailing express mail packages weekly from Las Vegas to Memphis from the same USPO facility. They reviewed video of the lobby and found the prior visits. They staked out the lobby and … Continue reading
ID: Automobile exception applied to suitcases with suspect MJ removed from a Greyhound bus
The automobile exception here was applied to two suitcases on a Greyhound bus that stopped in Boise. The bus driver was adjusting bags after removing bags for those getting off in Boise, and he could smell marijuana coming from a … Continue reading
CA6: SW for cell phone for video of def’s obstructing officer properly led to finding CP
Defendant was stopped by a police officer and became argumentative, and he refused to provide his license, insurance, and registration. He said he was attempting to record the officer on his cell phone but he was too busy with it … Continue reading
SD: A pipe with residue on the person is PC for an automobile exception search
The officer decided to stop defendant who was parked under a “no parking” sign. When he approached the vehicle, an open container was visible between the driver and passenger seats. It turned out defendant’s DL was revoked. While normally a … Continue reading
ID: Officer stalled the stop to give drug dog time to arrive without RS
Defendant argued that his motion to suppress should have been granted because the officer slow walked the stop for 19 minutes without reasonable suspicion to give time for the drug dog to arrive. The trial court’s findings were not helpful … Continue reading
NYTimes Editorial: Drone Regulations Should Focus on Safety and Privacy
NYTimes Editorial: Drone Regulations Should Focus on Safety and Privacy: Though it would have been inconceivable just a few years ago, among the most popular gifts this past holiday season was the drone. Increasingly coveted by hobbyists and businesses, these … Continue reading
OH10: “The Fourth Amendment exists to be enforced, which means providing a remedy.”
Defendant was a student in school, and his unattended bag was first cursorily searched to identify the owner. Then it was dumped out to search because he was suspected to be a gang member. The school resource officers were state … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Stone v. Powell applies to § 2255’s
Defendant pled and didn’t appeal denial of his motion to suppress. Therefore, he had a “full and fair opportunity to litigate” to conclusion and waived. Stone v. Powell applies to 2255’s. Cadet v. United States, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174028 … Continue reading
techdirt: FBI Finally Completes FOIA Request [re GPS] 1,393 Days After It Was Filed; Withholds All 509 Responsive Pages
techdirt: FBI Finally Completes FOIA Request 1,393 Days After It Was Filed; Withholds All 509 Responsive Pages by Tim Cushing:
N.D.Okla.: When hidden police misconduct is the basis for a post-conviction claim, the statute of limitations starts when it was publicly disclosed
When hidden police misconduct is the basis for a post-conviction claim, the statute of limitations starts when it was publicly disclosed. Here, it was five years before the 2255 was filed. Here, the former officer’s misconduct was well known publicly … Continue reading