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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)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (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
OH5: Fire inspector’s violation of city agreement to give notice before inspections warranted his firing
Jeffries complained that he was subjected to arbitrary and invasive fire inspections, and the city agreed to give him prior notice. Lanzer, however, violated that agreement and was fired by the city. “However, as stated above, the City of Louisville … Continue reading
IAC of a search issue can’t prevail if the search was still valid
Defendant’s 2255 fails for a lack of prejudice because defendant can’t show that he’d prevail on the motion to suppress if it had been filed. (The government also argued that the plea agreement’s waiver provisions barred the 2255 because the … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: Kidnapping investigation ultimately led police to def’s rental property; he fled when they attempted to stop him; nexus to property shown
Police investigating two robberies with kidnappings got the lead on defendant from GPS in a stolen car that gave them an address. Investigating that address gave them another lead to the place ultimately searched that the robbers were renting that … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Rule 41(g) requires there be no adequate remedy at law; here there is one, so denied
The government didn’t seize $15,000 at issue here: It allegedly told counsel to hold on to it, and that’s in the District of Kansas. This is the wrong forum and there’s an adequate remedy at law, so the Rule 41(g) … Continue reading
CA10: USDA officers committing a break-in without exigency to conduct an inspection violated 4A
USDA inspectors breaking into plaintiff’s wildlife preserve to check on animals that the previous day the preserve said would go to the veterinarian the next day stated a Fourth Amendment claim under Bivens. At the time of the entry, the … Continue reading
CA8: Plain view of cell phone screen supported seizure of phone
The 75 day delay in getting the IP address and a 51 day delay after associating the IP address with defendant in a child pornography search warrant case did not make the warrant stale. Defendant turned on his phone in … Continue reading
CA9 (en banc): Where exigency for CPS worker to take child wasn’t really clear at time, she gets qualified immunity
At the time of this seizure of an infant from the parents in 2008, it was clearly established that child protection workers could not remove children from the parents without a warrant or exigency, but not something like these facts … Continue reading
TX2: “the impoundment of the vehicle was a task tied to the traffic infraction” and didn’t extend it
Defendant was stopped for a brake light infraction, and neither he nor the passenger had a valid DL or insurance. Thus, impoundment is in order. “Similarly, the impoundment of the vehicle was a task tied to the traffic infraction, and … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Accidental muting of body recorder by officer’s body armor wasn’t due process violation
The officer testified that his body armor accidentally muted the microphone on the body recorder on his belt when he bent over, and this was not a due process violation. There was exigency here for a community caretaking function entry … Continue reading
NYLJ: The Constitutionality of Using Cell-Site Simulators
NYLJ: The Constitutionality of Using Cell-Site Simulators by Richard Raysman & Peter Brown:
In a 50 lb meth conspiracy jury trial
So postings will be erratic. Some already written ahead to post later.
CA6: A few roaches in a trash pull isn’t PC drugs would be found
A few marijuana roaches found in a trash pull doesn’t add up to probable cause that drugs would be found in defendant’s home. United States v. Abernathy, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 21824 (6th Cir. Dec. 8, 2016):
IL: Def arrested in bedroom w/o PC at 5:20 am should have all evidence from arrest suppressed
Defendant was arrested without probable cause for murder at 5:20 am by officers standing in his bedroom who handcuffed him and took him away. The evidence derived from the arrest from the room should have been suppressed. People v. Gutierrez, … Continue reading
NC: Officer waving arms to stop def for benign reason wasn’t conducting a “stop”
Officer waving his arms standing in the street to get defendant to stop did not conduct a “seizure” when defendant stopped. The officer was trying to gather information about others, and had not focused on defendant. “Officer Johnson waved his … Continue reading
MO: Def’s rejection of consent by reference to lawyer was not invocation of lawyer for later statement
“However, assuming arguendo, Defendant partially invoked his Fifth Amendment rights by saying, ‘I ain’t signing shit without my attorney,’ in response to a request to search his home, his right to counsel still was not violated. The mere utterance of … Continue reading
CA9: Incidental capture of U.S. person’s emails between him and a foreign national were reasonable under FISA and 4A
A person in the U.S. has a diminished privacy interest in emails between himself and foreign nationals that the NSA can intercept. Incidental capturing of emails between defendant in the U.S. and others elsewhere didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment because … Continue reading
W.D.Okla.: A school district’s alleged indifference to bullying complaints stated a 4A claim
“In light of Plaintiffs’ allegations, the Court finds that Plaintiffs have alleged sufficient facts which allow the Court to draw the reasonable inference that the District maintains a policy of retaliating against parents who advocate for their children, in violation … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Court just doesn’t buy that officers could see def not wearing seatbelt at night or that MJ was smelled in the car
The USMJ just doesn’t buy the testimony that the Memphis P.D. officer could see the defendant driving without a seatbelt at night coming from the other direction because the officers’ testimony on the basis for the stop disagreed. After that, … Continue reading
MO: Reliance on apparent authority was objectively reasonable
It was objectively reasonable for the officer to believe the officer’s testimony that the officers had apparent authority to enter the basement area where defendant was staying. “Defendant argues on appeal that Ms. Latcher did not reside in the home … Continue reading