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- 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
- CAAF: SW’s incorporated affidavit satisfied particularity, reliance on CA10 case not CAAF case was error
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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: April 2016
The Atlantic: Magazine: Is Stop-and-Frisk Worth It?
The Atlantic: Magazine: Is Stop-and-Frisk Worth It? by Daniel Bergner: Civil-rights activists are ecstatic that a federal judge declared the NYPD’s policy unconstitutional. But law-enforcement officials say the practice has made U.S. cities dramatically safer. Now what?
CA10: Stone v. Powell’s “full and fair opportunity” to litigate search claim below couldn’t be established on this record
The state record on habeas was inadequate to determine whether petitioner actually got a “full and fair opportunity” to litigate his search claim, so the case is remanded to get the state court record before the district court. Thornton v. … Continue reading
WaPo: Microsoft sues over law banning tech firms from telling customers about data requests
WaPo: Microsoft sues over law banning tech firms from telling customers about data requests by Ellen Nakashima: Microsoft wants a federal judge in Seattle to strike down a law that allows courts to prohibit a tech company from telling customers … Continue reading
Vice: Exclusive: Canadian Police Obtained BlackBerry’s Global Decryption Key
Vice: Exclusive: Canadian Police Obtained BlackBerry’s Global Decryption Key by Justin Ling and Jordan Pearson: A high-level surveillance probe of Montreal’s criminal underworld shows that Canada’s federal policing agency has had a global encryption key for BlackBerry devices since 2010.
NYTimes: F.B.I. Used Hacking Software Decade Before iPhone Fight
NYTimes: F.B.I. Used Hacking Software Decade Before iPhone Fight by Matt Apuzzo: They persuaded a judge to let them remotely, and secretly, install software on the group’s computers to help get around the encryption. That effort, revealed in newly declassified … Continue reading
CA6: CSLI is a mere business record subject to the third party doctrine and accessible without a warrant
CSLI is a mere business record subject to the third party doctrine and accessible without a warrant. United States v. Carpenter, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 6670 (6th Cir. April 13, 2016) (two articles at end of quote):
TX: Common law and HIPAA creates a privacy interest in medical records; but GJ subpoena good enough
A hospital patient (here suspected of DUI) has a privacy interest in his medical records sufficient to give standing to challenge their acquisition by the state, but prior to HIPAA under state case law and bolstered by HIPAA. But, the … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Only one of three officers saw gun under streetlight; credibility here goes to the officer and why
Three officers were on patrol and only one saw defendant allegedly remove a chrome gun from one pocket and the glint of a streetlight off the gun. Defendant provided an affidavit that he never pulled the gun out, but he … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Denying ownership of phone and knowledge of password was a lack of REP
There were exigent circumstances for seizure of defendant’s cell phone because of the possibility of the phone being remotely erased or thrown away. Then defendant denied knowledge of the password or ownership of the phone, and that showed a lack … Continue reading
CA8: Protective sweep of a camper was reasonable because another was inside when def was arrested
Defendant was supposed to sell methamphetamine from his camper at a campsite to an undercover officer, but he declined, so the officer attempted to arrest him outside the camper on an outstanding warrant and he fled. He went to the … Continue reading
NACDL Press Release: House Judiciary passed out Email Privacy Act
Today the House Judiciary Committee passed out of committee the Email Privacy Act (H.R. 699) by a vote of 28-0. This bill is a long overdue update of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), a bill passed in 1986 that … Continue reading
CA7: Jardines has to apply to dog sniffs in apartment complexes
Use of a drug dog in an apartment building violated Jardines. The court can’t find any other conclusion because people of color and lower economic means are more likely to live in apartments. Kyllo was sufficiently clear on this that … Continue reading
WV: Consent search not void for lack of notification of rights under Art. 36 of Vienna Convention
Violation of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by failing to advise defendant of his right to notify his consulate of his arrest and detention doesn’t lead to suppression of the consent search of his penis for … Continue reading
WaPo: FBI paid professional hackers one-time fee to crack San Bernardino iPhone
WaPo: FBI paid professional hackers one-time fee to crack San Bernardino iPhone by Ellen Nakashima: The FBI cracked a San Bernardino terrorist’s phone with the help of professional hackers who discovered and brought to the bureau at least one previously … Continue reading
Ars Technica: First came the Breathalyzer, now meet the roadside police “textalyzer”
Ars Technica: First came the Breathalyzer, now meet the roadside police “textalyzer” by David Kravets: Drivers in accidents could risk losing license for refusing to submit phone to testing.
D.Vt.: False name during traffic stop is RS for longer detention
Officer’s reasonable belief driver gave false name is reasonable suspicion to continue a stop. United States v. Marsh, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47995 (D.Vt. April 7, 2016). Defendant challenged the search warrant because it included information that was allegedly obtained … Continue reading
D.V.I.: Knock-and-talk not invalid under Jardines just because officers hope to get consent to search
Knock-and-talk not invalid just because officers hope to get consent to search. They don’t violate the implied license described in Jardines by approaching the front door to talk to defendant in a knock-and-talk. United States v. Wesselhoft, 2016 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
CA7: Refusal to remove hands and then keeping one side of body away from officer was RS
Defendant’s repeated refusals to keep both hands out of his pockets and turning to keep one side away from the officer was reasonable suspicion he was armed. United States v. Mays, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 6552 (7th Cir. April 11, … Continue reading
OR: Possession of a long gun in the woods doesn’t justify a stop and frisk for another weapon without RS
A Forest Service officer came upon defendant and others probably target shooting with rifles. He told them to secure the weapons and they did. Defendant was completely cooperative and nothing suggested that he was otherwise armed. One long gun doesn’t … Continue reading
The Atlantic: The Outrage of Body-Cavity Searches
The Atlantic: The Outrage of Body-Cavity Searches by Conor Friedersdorf: Americans routinely turn away from systematic violations of civil rights when they are perpetrated in the guise of fighting the war on drugs.