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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
- CA11: Service of SW without attachments isn’t 4A violation
- KS: Running warrants on a passed out person is reasonable
- M.D.Fla.: Unidentified pills in driver’s lap may have been RS but it wasn’t PC for arrest
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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
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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)
ACLU on privacy
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Section 1983 Blog -
"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: April 2017
PA: Even though gun suppressed from unconsensual search, prior observation of gun by victim still admissible
Defendant was reported to have pointed a gun at a woman, and the police showed up. The gun was suppressed as far as his involuntary consent was concerned, but the state’s reference to the gun was not cause for a … Continue reading
CA7: Officer did not violate 4A in reasonably handcuffing road rage suspect until RS dissipated
The district court erred in not granting summary judgment to the officer in this § 1983 case for his use of handcuffs on the plaintiff in his mid-60’s. There was reasonable suspicion for his stop as a suspect in a … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Def’s probation search was done at a reasonable time and in a reasonable manner, as required by state statute
Defendant’s North Carolina probation search was conducted at a reasonable time and in a reasonable manner, as required by statute, and it was for probation purposes. It was not quite a nighttime search. United States v. Lynch, 2017 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
NYTimes: Border Officers Nearly Double Searches of Electronic Devices, US Says
NYTimes: Border Officers Nearly Double Searches of Electronic Devices, US Says by Ron Nixon:
NPR: U.S. Border Patrol Agents Step Up Cell Phone Searches
NPR: U.S. Border Patrol Agents Step Up Cell Phone Searches: The border patrol has almost tripled the number of people it demands turn over their cell phones coming into and leaving the U.S. Some in Congress now want to require … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Omission from affidavit that 5 prior searches of def’s home found nothing wasn’t material where PC was shown yet again
Omission from the affidavit for search warrant that five prior searches at defendant’s residence for drugs had proved fruitless was not material where there was a separate showing of probable cause for this search warrant. The good faith exception also … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: Not moving to suppress wasn’t IAC where he wasn’t charged with the stuff from the alleged illegal search
Defendant in his 2255 could not show that defense counsel was ineffective for not moving to suppress drugs that never formed the basis of a charge against him. He was arrested for prior offenses, and then he gave up drugs … Continue reading
Mother Jones: “I Gotta Go and Hunt Criminals.” On the Road With Ohio Highway Patrol.
Mother Jones: “I Gotta Go and Hunt Criminals.” On the Road With Ohio Highway Patrol. by Julia Lurie: I rode along with the officers who pull over suspicious cars and hunt for drugs.
Treatise on sale through 4/14 at 11:59 pm PT
Treatise on sale through 4/14 at 11:59 pm PT here and enter LIB20 at checkout. Expires April 14, 2017 at 11:59 P.M. PT
E.D.Mich.: Driving somebody to a stash house isn’t probable cause for your house
The affidavit for the search warrant completely failed to show probable cause for defendant’s house. The fact he drove somebody to a stash house isn’t probable cause to believe he’s involved in the stash house and its drug trafficking organization. … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Def’s actions gave RS for cell phone and computer searches when he came into O’Hare from the Philippines; he’d already been selected for secondary inspection
Defendant arrived at O’Hare on a flight from the Philippines. The government described how they took the passenger manifest of incoming flights and looked for likely candidates for a secondary search of computers and cell phones. Defendant had been there … Continue reading
MA: Def was on pretrial GPS monitoring, and it can be used as evidence in another case
Defendant agreed to GPS monitoring as a condition of pretrial release in another case. Thus, his motion to suppress the monitoring is denied when he’s accused of a burglary, and the GPS puts him there. His argument was that he … Continue reading
Twelve Angry Men first showed 60 years ago today
60 years ago today was the first screening of the classic Twelve Angry Men. Although only a little over a minute of the movie occurs while the judge instructs the jury, the rest occurs in the jury room, albeit about … Continue reading
SD: No corroboration of CI’s tip voided stop, even under Navarrette
“In each of the foregoing decisions, the stop at issue was upheld either because of independent observation by law-enforcement officers or because the tip itself demonstrated the informant’s basis of knowledge for alleging criminal conduct. In this case, the report … Continue reading
New law review article: A Tactical Fourth Amendment
A Tactical Fourth Amendment by Brandon L. Garrett & Seth W. Stoughton, Virginia Law Review, Vol. 103, 211, 2017 Abstract:
NYTimes: U.S. Blinks in Clash With Twitter; Drops Order to Unmask Anti-Trump Account
NYTimes: U.S. Blinks in Clash With Twitter; Drops Order to Unmask Anti-Trump Account by Mike Isaac: Last month, the federal government issued a summons ordering Twitter to hand over information about an anonymous account that had posted messages critical of … Continue reading
Omaha World-Herald: Nebraska law enforcement report shows racial disparity in traffic stops
Omaha World-Herald: Nebraska law enforcement report shows racial disparity in traffic stops by Alia Conley: Nebraska law enforcement agencies continued to report racial disparities in traffic stops in 2016. In Douglas County, for example, black drivers accounted for 28.5 percent … Continue reading
TN: Police passing “no trespassing” signs on rural land doesn’t prevent a knock-and-talk
Citing numerous cases, the Tennessee Supreme Court holds that officers passing “no trespassing” signs has no talismanic authority to make a knock-and-talk unreasonable. The overwhelming weight of authority so holds. Police came to defendant’s front door, knocked, and he opened … Continue reading
PA: CI isn’t corroborated solely because he helped make another case
The CI led to another case, but the information here wasn’t corroborated and easily could have been. “We acknowledge that this is a close case. However, the police had every opportunity to pursue more substantial corroboration prior to preparing the … Continue reading
NE: Return of property not required until after post-conviction is concluded
As long as post-conviction proceedings or a federal prosecution are possible, the state has the ability to keep the evidence without return to the defendant. The state statute says “may” not shall. State v. Buttercase, 296 Neb. 304, 2017 Neb. … Continue reading