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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
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- 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)
--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: March 2017
CA11: Ptf stated enough to get over Heck bar; DC erred in dismissing with insufficient findings
Plaintiff filed a Bivens action against a U.S. Postal Inspector for having him locked out of his storage unit on a telephone call that required follow-up to seize then search. It was never forthcoming. A relative tried to access his … Continue reading
WaPo: Employees who decline genetic testing could face penalties under proposed bill
WaPo: Employees who decline genetic testing could face penalties under proposed bill by Lena H. Sun: Employers could impose hefty penalties on employees who decline to participate in genetic testing as part of workplace wellness programs if a bill approved … Continue reading
Tenth Amendment Center: Massachusetts Bill Would Ban Warrantless Stingray Spying
Tenth Amendment Center: Massachusetts Bill Would Ban Warrantless Stingray Spying by Mike Maharrey: BOSTON, Mass. (March 10, 2017) – A Massachusetts bill would generally prohibit the warrantless use of stingray devices and the collection of electronic data stored by service … Continue reading
PA: SW for house permitted search of guest’s pants that were on floor when the police arrived
Police came with a drug search warrant into the house of another where defendant was sleeping with a woman, and told him to get up. He reached for his nearby pants, and they took them and searched them finding his … Continue reading
CA9: Hearing apparent domestic abuse inside from choking and threatening to use a gun justified police entry
“The district court properly concluded that probable cause and exigent circumstances justified the police officers’ warrantless entry into the apartment. The officers heard Harris and Leanna Devad fighting; witnesses reported hearing choking sounds and hearing Devad say that Harris had … Continue reading
ND: Cell phone subject to probation search of house where CP suspected to be on it
Defendant was on supervised probation, and his PO received information from his girlfriend that he had “provocative” pictures of clothed young girls he was uploading to a cell phone that had no service. It was reasonable to seize and search … Continue reading
MA: Impoundment unreasonable in purported “high crime” area that was partly residential with other cars already there; Swiss Army knife not an indicator other weapons in car
Defendant was stopped and arrested in a “high crime” area [which apparently didn’t include stripping cars]. The area was partly residential and other cars were parked on the street, too. That alone didn’t make it reasonable to have to impound … Continue reading
Tenth Amendment Center: New Hampshire House Passes Bill Banning Support for Warrantless Federal Spying Programs
Tenth Amendment Center: New Hampshire House Passes Bill Banning Support for Warrantless Federal Spying Programs by Michael Bolden:
IL: Frisk depends on RS def is armed, not just committing some nebulous offense
“We reject defendant’s argument he was seized when officer Harrold requested he remove his hands from his pockets and conclude defendant was not seized until officer Harrold frisked him.” … “Accordingly, a police officer must have reasonable suspicion the individual … Continue reading
USA Today: ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ should mean what it says: Column [repealing civil forfeiture]
USA Today: ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ should mean what it says: Column by Derek Draplin and Kahryn Riley: Every state should join Nebraska and New Mexico in repealing civil forfeiture.
OC Weekly: FBI Used Best Buy’s Geek Squad To Increase Secret Public Surveillance
OC Weekly: FBI Used Best Buy’s Geek Squad To Increase Secret Public Surveillance by R. Scott Moxley: Recently unsealed records reveal a much more extensive secret relationship than previously known between the FBI and Best Buy’s Geek Squad, including evidence … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Def was fully cooperative; flight of other person in car not attributable to him
When defendant’s car was stopped, he was cooperative but the passenger ran off. When officers approached defendant, he put up his hands and fully cooperated. His handcuffing was reasonable because of the potential risk of weapons, but there was no … Continue reading
NYTimes Opinion: The Truth About the WikiLeaks C.I.A. Cache
NYTimes Opinion: The Truth About the WikiLeaks C.I.A. Cache\ by Zeynep Tufekci: Not all that is made out to be; unfounded assumptions by the press based on hype from Wikileaks.
CNN: Comey: ‘There is no such thing as absolute privacy in America’
CNN: Comey: ‘There is no such thing as absolute privacy in America’ by Mary Kay Mallonee & Eugene Scott: FBI Director James Comey warned Wednesday that Americans should not have expectations of ‘absolute privacy,’ adding that he planned to finish … Continue reading
The Hill: ACLU challenges warrant to search Facebook page of Dakota Access opponents
The Hill: ACLU challenges warrant to search Facebook page of Dakota Access opponents by Morgan Chalfant: The American Civil Liberties Union is moving to quash a police warrant granted to search data on a Facebook page of a group protesting … Continue reading
MO: A body between apartments justified an entry to see if there were other victims
Police get a call about women screaming and yelling and a body between two buildings. They show up and circumstances connect them to an apartment. A community caretaking function search for another victim is proper. State v. Shegog, 2017 Mo. … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: That building inspector’s entry was governed by 4A is clearly established
A municipal building inspector’s entry into plaintiff’s building is governed by the Fourth Amendment and the law is well established. “Red-Tagging” the property for defects facially states a claim for relief and the motion to dismiss is denied. VNT Prop. … Continue reading
MO: Homeowner had apparent authority to consent to search his basement where def had been living for 12 days
Police were investigating the defendant for child pornography, and located him at a friend’s house where he’d been living in the basement for 12 days. Because of the layout of the basement and its access, the court finds that the … Continue reading
ID: 4A waiver not mentioned at sentencing couldn’t later be imposed by PO
When defendant was sentenced, there was no Fourth Amendment waiver mentioned by the court, and the sentencing and probation order didn’t mention it. Six weeks later, he was forced to sign a Fourth Amendment waiver by his PO. That waiver … Continue reading