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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) -
“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: December 2016
E.D.Pa.: No attenuation to save statement made after arrest w/o PC
No attenuation: defendant was arrested without probable cause and gave a statement, and there is no intervening event. Statement suppressed. United States v. Vilella, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 168741 (E.D.Pa. Dec. 6, 2016):
E.D.Pa.: Court just doesn’t buy officer’s story about seeing gun; suppressed
The court just doesn’t believe the officer’s testimony that he saw a gun to justify an engine compartment search under the automobile exception. The government’s fallback position that it was valid as a Terry frisk is also rejected for lack … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Affidavit and warrant for Anthony Weiner’s and Huma Abedin’s laptop computer posted on court’s website
Considering the public’s right of access to judicial materials, concisely explained by the court, a redacted version of the search warrant for Anthony Weiner’s and Huma Abedin’s laptop computer is filed on the S.D.N.Y.’s website (affidavit and warrant here). In … Continue reading
KS: Directions and control of defendant made it clear to defendant he wasn’t free to leave: “congenial conversation during the prolonged encounter” doesn’t undo it
The directions and control of defendant made it clear to defendant he wasn’t free to leave. This is an important analysis for any practitioner. State v. Cleverly, 2016 Kan. LEXIS 606 (Dec. 23, 2016):
NC: Nexus is a PC question also shown by reasonable interences
It was logical to conclude that two brothers were drug dealers: they lived together which one lied about where he lived, one of them had a truck registered there, and a fair inference on the totality was that evidence of … Continue reading
IL: GFE does not apply to seizure under a statute later held unconstitutional
Defendant was stopped and relieved of a handgun by the police and charged with it. Four years later, the state supreme court held that possession of a handgun alone, without criminal purpose, violated the Second Amendment. Defendant gets the benefit … Continue reading
IA: Where state stipulated needing PC for its actions, it couldn’t argue RS was sufficient on appeal; it’s bound by its argument below
Where the state argues reasonable suspicion justified the officer’s actions, they had to say so in the trial court. Instead, they proceeded on the theory they needed probable cause, and that’s what they’re bound by on appeal. State v. Steffens, … Continue reading
IA: Passenger’s open container seen in parked car didn’t justify search of car console
Defendant’s car was parked about midnight in June with the windows down and the radio loud. He, the driver, was standing outside the car. The passenger was still inside. Officers stopped and approached the car. They saw the passenger had … Continue reading
LawFare: The Surprisingly Weak Reasoning of Mohamud
LawFare: The Surprisingly Weak Reasoning of Mohamud by Orin Kerr: In a recent post here at Lawfare, April Doss argues that the Ninth Circuit’s decision in United States v. Mohamud “got it right.” In her view, the critics of the … Continue reading
CT: Dog sniff at door of condominium violates sanctity of home under state constitution and 4A
A drug dog sniff in the common areas of a condominium violated the state constitution. The Second Circuit held that as to the Fourth Amendment in 1985 in United States v. Thomas, 757 F.2d 1359 (2d Cir. 1985), and other … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Attempt to show nexus was “bare bones,” and GFE doesn’t apply
Defendant was suspected of a robbery, and he had some thin connection to a house he’d been kicked out of because of a domestic dispute. He’d been seen taking the trash out and his car was there once. The court … Continue reading
How easy is it to link a cell phone to a crime to get a search warrant for it?
This is something I’ve been seeing more and more of: A co-conspirator’s cell phone is seized and another co-conspirator’s number is known to be on the phone. A search warrant issues for the other cell phone for its contacts, text … Continue reading
IN: Dog alert on car that leads to search that came up empty didn’t permit strip search of the occupants
A drug dog alerted on defendant’s car, so the police searched it, coming up empty. That alone did not justify taking the occupants in to the police station for a strip search. Thomas v. State, 2016 Ind. App. LEXIS 457 … Continue reading
NC: Search warrant for house included rental car on curtilage, reversing CoA
A search warrant for the home includes the curtilage, and that includes vehicles parked on the curtilage; here, a rental car. State v. Lowe, 2016 N.C. LEXIS 1116 (Dec. 21, 2016), rev’g State v. Lowe, 774 S.E.2d 893 (N.C. App. … Continue reading
NC: Surrounding house for a knock-and-talk didn’t make the knock-and-talk unreasonable
Defendant had a running generator connected to his house and mold and condensation on the windows. A CI had said that defendant had a grow operation. Officers came to the house and confirmed the generator and windows from the front. … Continue reading
FL4: Search of student’s purse with RS that turned up nothing was dissipation of the RS
Based on a report, the school security officer had reasonable suspicion under T.L.O. that the student had a Taser-like device on her person. He searched her purse and didn’t find one, so the reasonable suspicion thus dissipated. A second search … Continue reading
CA8 en banc holds tech college could only drug test students in safety sensitive areas; broad testing program violates 4A
The Eighth Circuit en banc holds that (formerly) Linn State Technical College (now State Technical College of Missouri) could only drug test students in safety sensitive areas. Its broad testing program violates the Fourth Amendment. The college’s case is controlled … Continue reading
The Hill: Report on warrantless surveillance shows Congress must update privacy laws
The Hill: Report on warrantless surveillance shows Congress must update privacy laws by Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX):
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: Albuquerque concedes forfeiture was illegal, continues with illegal forfeitures
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: Albuquerque concedes forfeiture was illegal, continues with illegal forfeitures by Radley Balko:
Harvard Magazine: The Watchers
Harvard Magazine: The Watchers by Jonathan Shaw “Can the behavior of an entire population, even in a modern democracy, be changed by awareness of surveillance? And what are the effects of other kinds of privacy invasions?”