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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: July 2016
WI S.Ct. decides inevitable discovery for first time and it overcomes a statement obtained in bad faith
Wisconsin Supreme Court decides the inevitable discovery rule for the first time. Despite officer’s bad faith in obtaining a statement without proper Miranda warnings, the evidence is clear to the Supreme Court that the search would have occurred without statement. … Continue reading
NYTimes: In Dissents, Sonia Sotomayor Takes On the Criminal Justice System
NYTimes: In Dissents, Sonia Sotomayor Takes On the Criminal Justice System by Adam Liptak: WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court term had barely gotten underway in early November when Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued her first dissent. A police officer’s “rogue conduct,” … Continue reading
Treatise 10% off through 7/6 midnight
Bookstore Not the 20-25% of before, but something.
OC Breeze: Celebrating the Bill of Rights: Fourth Amendment
OC Breeze: Celebrating the Bill of Rights: Fourth Amendment Celebrating the Bill of Rights, your defense and bulwark against the encroachment by government into your personal liberty. (The Bill of Rights, incidentally, was ratified December 15, 1791: 15 years, 4 … Continue reading
HI: Dog sniff for a mere traffic violation unreasonable
The car defendant was in was stopped because of a seat belt violation. Defendant was recognized as being involved in drugs, so a drug dog was called out. Using the drug dog for a mere traffic stop was unreasonable without … Continue reading
IA: Def’s search may have violated “plain feel” when drugs removed, but search incident would have occurred shortly
The search of defendant may have violated “plain feel” because the drugs in his pocket obviously weren’t a weapon, it was inevitably discovered because it was the product of a search incident for finding drugs on the car. Stephen v. … Continue reading
WY: It was reasonable for officer to believe backpack behind driver was his for consent search; no objection from passenger
Defense counsel was not ineffective for not filing a motion to suppress the search of his backpack in the car of another when the other consented to a search of the car. Defendant’s backpack was behind the driver, not him, … Continue reading
Two on pre-Jones GPS and good faith
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not challenging GPS in 2007. The state passed its own GPS statute in 2002, and defendant argued it wasn’t complied with when a GPS was placed on his car after an armored car robbery he … Continue reading
NY3: SW for strip search for drugs hidden in crotch was reasonable
A search warrant for any vehicle defendant was found driving was particular enough. There was a factual basis for issuing a search warrant for a strip search where the CI said that defendant kept drugs in his crotch. People v. … Continue reading
D.S.D.: No REP on couch in living room of another where def slept; owner could consent
Defendant slept on the couch of another, and the other had to walk by it to his own bedroom. He could consent to the search of the couch even though it was defendant’s bed. United States v. Zastrow, 2016 U.S. … Continue reading
Editorial: When it comes to police body cameras, the public can’t be kept in the dark
Editorial: When it comes to police body cameras, the public can’t be kept in the dark: Body-worn cameras are all the rage among police departments that are serious about accountability. But the tool is still so new that there’s little … Continue reading
The Intercept: Secret Rules Make It Pretty Easy for the FBI to Spy on Journalists
The Intercept: Secret Rules Make It Pretty Easy for the FBI to Spy on Journalists by Cora Currier: SECRET FBI RULES allow agents to obtain journalists’ phone records with approval from two internal officials — far less oversight than under … Continue reading
Cal.6th: In probation search, roommate’s stuff couldn’t be searched; “widely shared social expectations” show privacy rights
Defendant was living as a roommate of a probationer in a clearly separate room. A probation search could not include her separate living space, dresser drawers, and her purse. “The question is what ‘widely shared social expectations’ govern defendant’s privacy … Continue reading
CO: Smell of MJ can still be factor in PC on totality, despite 1 oz being legal
D.Guam: CI corroborated by prior police intel
The CI in this case was supported by (1) the fact defendant had been arrested for drugs in 2006 and (2) police intelligence that he was already dealing drugs. The search warrant was validly issued. United States v. Quitugua, 2016 … Continue reading
WSJ: Racial Disparity Found in Police Taser Use
WSJ: Racial Disparity Found in Police Taser Use by Joseph De Avila: Minorities were involved in more than half of the 2015 incidents of Taser use by Connecticut police, report says.
Hot Air: The Fourth Amendment covers everyone … including suspected criminals
Hot Air: The Fourth Amendment covers everyone … including suspected criminals by Taylor Millard: It’s completely understandable why “law and order” conservatives are defending the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Utah v. Strieff case. Edward Strieff Jr. had a … Continue reading
OH11: Four hour delay to go to reported meth lab then smelling nothing meant no exigency
Officers received word that defendant had a meth lab at his house. They waited four hours to go there, and, when they did, they smelled nothing. Thus, there was no exigent circumstances. State v. Link, 2016-Ohio-4597, 2016 Ohio App. LEXIS … Continue reading