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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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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)
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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: March 2016
E.D.N.C.: Cut-and-paste mistaken sentence fragment into SW affidavit wasn’t enough for Franks challenge
A negligent cut-and-paste error of a sentence fragment from one form affidavit into another wasn’t sufficient to trigger a Franks hearing because it was essentially meaningless over all. United States v. Davis, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29423 (E.D.N.C. Jan. 6, … Continue reading
MA: If arrest invalid, inventory based on it is too
Defendant’s arrest was invalid, so the inventory of his car was invalid. Commonwealth v. Williams, 2016 Mass. Super. LEXIS 19 (Wooster Feb. 18, 2016). The protective sweep here was invalid, but that did not require suppression of the search. Excising … Continue reading
San Francisco Chronicle: Police panel upholds complaint for arresting public defender
San Francisco Chronicle: Police panel upholds complaint for arresting public defender by Paul Elias (AP) A civilian police oversight board said San Francisco police officers had no valid reason to arrest a public defender inside the city’s courthouse after she … Continue reading
The Guardian: FBI could force us to turn on iPhone cameras and microphones, says Apple
The Guardian: FBI could force us to turn on iPhone cameras and microphones, says Apple: Eddy Cue warns precedent set by San Bernardino case could lead to company being forced to turn users’ smartphones into surveillance devices.
Reason.com: 4 Things to Know About Sri Srinivasan, Obama’s Potential Nominee to Replace Scalia on the Supreme Court
Reason.com: 4 Things to Know About Sri Srinivasan, Obama’s Potential Nominee to Replace Scalia on the Supreme Court by Damon Root:
Center for Democracy and Technology: A Response to Law Enforcement Concerns with the Email Privacy Act
Center for Democracy and Technology: A Response to Law Enforcement Concerns with the Email Privacy Act by Jadzia Butler:
NYTimes: Obama, at South by Southwest, Backs Law Enforcement in Fight Over Encryption
NYTimes: Obama, at South by Southwest, Backs Law Enforcement in Fight Over Encryption by Michael D. Shear: President Obama told an audience of technology enthusiasts in Austin that he supported efforts to gain protected information from electronic devices, opposing the … Continue reading
The Guardian: Apple accused of trying to make iPhones ‘warrant-proof’ in FBI case
The Guardian: Apple accused of trying to make iPhones ‘warrant-proof’ in FBI case Danny Yadron and Spencer Ackerman: The Justice Department reasserted claims that the tech company is putting its brand ahead of safety in formal legal rebuttal over landmark … Continue reading
The Atlantic: The Rapid Rise of Federal Surveillance Drones Over America
The Atlantic: The Rapid Rise of Federal Surveillance Drones Over America by Conor Friedersdorf: An alphabet soup’s worth of government agencies are exercising their ability to look down on ordinary citizens.
E.D.Mich.: Border search of computer with special software was reasonable
Defendant arrived at the Detroit airport on a flight from Cancun, and his body language showed he was too nervous. He consented to a search of his camera and computer, and the CBP was looking for child pornography. They called … Continue reading
WaPo: Surprise! NSA data will soon routinely be used for domestic policing that has nothing to do with terrorism
WaPo: Surprise! NSA data will soon routinely be used for domestic policing that has nothing to do with terrorism by Radley Balko:
MO: Quarles doesn’t apply by plain words of statute to juvenile interrogations
The juvenile law’s provisions for a rights warning is mandatory, and the court declines to imply a public safety exception under Quarles. In Interest of J.L.H., 2016 Mo. App. LEXIS 211 (March 8, 2016). Plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment prison cell search … Continue reading
NJ: A “roving wiretap” from an authorized phone to a new phone is valid under the Fourth Amendment and Title III with after the fact notice to court
A “roving wiretap” from an authorized phone to a new phone is valid under the Fourth Amendment, Title III, and state law provided the judge issuing the order is notified within 48 hours. State v. Feliciano, 2016 N.J. LEXIS 229 … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Dog sniff during the normal computer checks are valid
Defendant was stopped for failure to use a turn signal and the dog sniff occurred before the standard computer checks were complete. Therefore, the stop was not extended for the dog sniff. United States v. Broadnax, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Despite govt instigated private seizure of phone, emails admissible because the govt already had them
Defendant’s wife seized his cell phone and turned it over to the police at their suggestion, but only because he was communicating with what he believed were underage girls for purposes of sex. The police already had all the emails … Continue reading
CA5: No factual findings of exigency for automobile exception applies; remanded
Defendant was followed to his house from a bank robbery, and his car was searched in the driveway. However, “[i]n this case, the district court did not make factual findings about whether exigent circumstances were present sufficient to justify a … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: RS came from GPS, pole camera surveillance, CI’s observations, police surveillance
“The Court concludes that the task force’s investigation of Cupp led to reasonable articulable suspicion that he was dealing drugs from his residence and had also been stealing lawnmowers, ATV’s, and motorcycles. The informant’s observations, police surveillance, video of his … Continue reading