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- 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
- CA10: Def’s BO suggesting heroin abuse added to RS
- WaPo: They confided in ChatGPT. Their secrets ended up in court.
- CA6: No interlocutory appeal of denial of motion to suppress
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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)
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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: June 2016
DE: SW also for documents permitted seizure of a cell phone because nexus was shown; second warrant for contents of phone
Police were justified in entering defendant’s apartment without a warrant under the clothing exigency to retrieve clothing reasonably calculated to lessen the risk of injury to defendant, who was wearing only a t-shirt, underwear, and no shoes to go to … Continue reading
The Daily Beast: DEA Wants Inside Your Medical Records to Fight the War on Drugs
The Daily Beast: DEA Wants Inside Your Medical Records to Fight the War on Drugs by Christopher Moraff: The feds are fighting to look at millions of private files without a warrant, including those of two transgender men who are … Continue reading
NE: Def is presumptively entitled to return of noncontraband property seized from him when his case is over
Defendant is presumptively entitled to return of noncontraband property seized from him when his case is over. “As in State v. Agee, supra, we conclude that once the criminal proceedings against Dubray were concluded, Dubray was presumptively entitled to the … Continue reading
NM: Inventory of def’s backpack many feet away from him was unreasonable, even though he admitted MJ was in it [Revd by NMSC]
Defendant on his motorcycle was followed by an officer because the officer knew that he didn’t have a valid driver’s license. He pulled into his driveway and parked behind his car and got off the bike, putting his backpack on … Continue reading
TX: Def’s failure to get trial court ruling on constitutional question was defaulted
The constitutional claim of the legality of defendant’s blood draw was argued, but the trial judge never ruled, so the claim wasn’t preserved for appeal. Court of Appeals reversed. Smith v. State, 2016 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 89 (June 8, … Continue reading
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: New frontiers in asset forfeiture
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: New frontiers in asset forfeiture by Radley Balko: While much of the progress on criminal justice reform has stalled in recent months, there has been quite a bit of progress on civil asset forfeiture. … But … Continue reading
NACDL: Symposium Report: The Fourth Amendment in the Digital Age
NACDL: Symposium Report: The Fourth Amendment in the Digital Age: Washington, DC (June 8, 2016) — The Fourth Amendment has entered the digital age. New surveillance technologies and programs — from GPS tracking devices to automated license plate readers to … Continue reading
CA3: Porn industry is not a “closely regulated industry” for purposes of warrantless record keeping inspections
The pornography industry is not a “closely regulated industry” for purposes of warrantless record keeping inspections. There is neither a longstanding history of regulation nor pervasive regulation. Free Speech Coalition v. Attorney General of the United States, 2016 U.S. App. … Continue reading
CA8: No REP in magnetic strip on back of credit cards; it is intended to be read when used
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in the magnetic strip on the back of a credit card, here many allegedly fraudulent cards, because the whole idea is that the magnetic strip is read every time the card is used. … Continue reading
NC: Apparent homeless man dragging unconscious woman was reasonable suspicion
One man walking with a limp followed by another apparently homeless man dragging an apparently unconscious woman was reasonable suspicion justifying police inquiry. State v. Sawyers, 2016 N.C. App. LEXIS 608 (June 7, 2016).* A regular drug house was known … Continue reading
NC: Boat 70′ from house wasn’t on curtilage
The officer described defendant’s boat with the drugs in it as being on the curtilage as a way to connect it to defendant to support drug possession. The facts, however, belie curtilage because it was 70′ from the house. The … Continue reading
MA: Smell of fresh marijuana, nervousness, and rental car not RS to order occupants out
The fairly strong smell of fresh marijuana isn’t enough to order defendant out of the vehicle, even with nervousness and driving a rental vehicle. Commonwealth v. Locke, 2016 Mass. App. LEXIS 63 (June 7, 2016):
CA4: Prison forced surgery to remove marbles as implants from penis “plausibly” states a claim
Forced prison surgery to have marbles as sexually enhancing implants removed from an inmate’s penis stated a plausible Fourth Amendment claim. He didn’t ask for it, and it is, after all, a private area of his body. “The fact that … Continue reading
VT: Officers would walk up lighted walkway to front door
It was reasonable for the officer to conclude that a lighted walkway to an entrance was the normal entrance to the home. Therefore, the officer didn’t violate the curtilage. The Fourth Amendment and state constitution are not absolute bars to … Continue reading
WaPo: FBI wants access to Internet browser history without a warrant in terrorism and spy cases
WaPo: FBI wants access to Internet browser history without a warrant in terrorism and spy cases by Ellen Nakashima:
S.D.Tex.: “the qualified common-law right of access to affidavits supporting search warrants when a pre-indictment investigation is underway” applies to defendant, too
Under Baltimore Sun, “the public has a qualified common-law right of access to affidavits supporting search warrants when a pre-indictment investigation is underway.” That includes the defendant. He also gets return of any privileged documents and to copies of others, … Continue reading
D.Vt.: CI’s information was too generic and didn’t provide RS for stop
The fact the CI said defendant was an African-American female on a bus from Burlington to NYC was not so distinctive to rise to reasonable suspicion, and her detention was unreasonable. Thus, the drugs seized from her are suppressed. United … Continue reading