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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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General (many free):
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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)
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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: May 2017
NY: No REP in LPN on any vehicle; it can be run at any time for any reason
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in the LPN on a vehicle, and it can be run at anytime for any reason: “To ensure the safety of our roads, a police officer may run a license plate number through … Continue reading
NYtimes editorial: Body Cams Work, if They’re Used Right
NYtimes editorial: Body Cams Work, if They’re Used Right: The police officer who shot and killed 15-year-old Jordan Edwards last month in Balch Springs, Tex., was charged with murder on Friday after the Police Department determined from body-camera images and … Continue reading
The Pueble Chieftan: Pueblo police officer accused of reenacting car search for body camera
I’ve heard of searches being reenacted for the benefit of other police officers for cover, to make the search look lawful. This may be the first I’ve heard of with a body camera. I should have seen this coming because … Continue reading
IN: CSLI is third-party information for which SW not required [noting pending cert. petitions]
The third party doctrine is still alive and well, and the collection of CSLI does not implicate Fourth Amendment concerns. Zanders v. State, 2017 Ind. LEXIS 339 (May 4, 2017):
MA: Minor deviations from the DUI roadblock plan don’t require suppression
The minor deviations from the plan for the DUI roadblock here don’t require suppression. Commonwealth v. Baker, 2017 Mass. App. LEXIS 53 (May 4, 2017). A citizen informant’s call that defendant had a knife in his back pocket justified a … Continue reading
NJ: Trial court was clearly erroneous in finding apartment was abandoned
The apartment was clearly not abandoned, and the trial court’s finding that it was was clearly erroneous. It had furniture and other stuff in it showing occupancy, and the officers never asked the landlord whether it was unoccupied. The trial … Continue reading
MO: Officers didn’t violate curtilage by going to back of mobile home to see what the neighbors could see
Officers did not violate curtilage when they could see marijuana growing behind defendant’s mobile home. While the plants weren’t visible from the front of the curtilage, going to look for another door would have revealed it. It was also visible … Continue reading
D.Conn.: Search incident included under the bed next to defendant
Search incident included a search under a bed near where the defendant was arrested, and cocaine was found there. The court rejects protective sweep under the bed as an alternative. United States v. Bohannon, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65446 (D. … Continue reading
OH2: Mistaken entry of LPN into computer that resulted in erroneous stop still made the stop reasonable
The Ohio officer entered in the license number of an Illinois vehicle but omitted a letter in smaller type on the side that made the number complete because he didn’t know it was required. The wrong LPN came back as … Continue reading
SC Media: San Francisco agency wants warrantless data from connected car crashes of self-driving cars
SC Media: San Francisco agency wants warrantless data from connected car crashes by Robert Abel:
E.D.Ky.: An “unreasonable” overseizure as to quantity and not place might be suppressible; hard case to understand
Overseizure under a valid warrant is hard to prove. This case makes it seem like at least an “unreasonable” overseizure, whatever that is, might still be a general search, but it doesn’t directly say so. This case is not good … Continue reading
OH3: SW was clearly conclusory, but still saved by GFE
The affidavit to support the search warrant was clearly conclusory, but the court can’t say that the officers didn’t objectively rely on the search warrants for purposes of the good faith exception. It wasn’t in “bad faith,” so it must … Continue reading
NYTimes: Reined-In N.S.A. Still Collected 151 Million Phone Records in ’16
NYTimes: Reined-In N.S.A. Still Collected 151 Million Phone Records in ’16 by Charlie Savage: The National Security Agency vacuumed up more than 151 million records about Americans’ phone calls last year via a new system that Congress created to end … Continue reading
IL: Arrest of driver would not make passengers think they were free to leave; continuation of stop was with RS
Passengers would not think they were free to leave based on the arrest and handcuffing of defendant driver. The continuation of the stop, however, was with reasonable suspicion because of furtive movements. People v. Veal, 2017 IL App (1st) 150500, … Continue reading
N.D.Fla.: No right in federal court to interlocutory appeal of denial of a suppression motion
“A defendant may not take an interlocutory appeal from an order denying a motion to suppress evidence. Di Bella v. United States, 369 U.S. 121, 123-24, 82 S. Ct. 654, 7 L. Ed. 2d 614 (1962).” So, defense counsel’s failure … Continue reading
CA4: $41,000 cash could be seized in execution of a warrant for marriage and immigration fraud based on def’s explanation
$41,000 cash could be seized in execution of a warrant for marriage and immigration fraud even though its evidentiary significance wasn’t instantly obvious. United States v. Kimble, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 7776 (4th Cir. May 2, 2017):
PA: Def’s stop was on a ruse and there was no RS; apparent drug sale 5 weeks earlier not RS on day in question
Officers stopped defendant on the street, falsely claiming he was involved in a disturbance at a McDonald’s. The officer did know defendant was involved in a drug transaction five weeks earlier, but nothing on the day in question. Defendant’s stop … Continue reading
NJ: Protective weapons search may be obviated by officers’ control of the situation
Reasonable suspicion that a vehicle may contain a weapon can be obviated by the number of officers controlling the scene. Here, the officers outnumbered the occupants of the car and had everybody out, so nobody was getting access to a … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Even though California recognizes recreational marijuana, smell is still RS of driving under influence
Even though recreational use of marijuana is recognized in California, smoking while driving is still an offense, and smell is at least reasonable suspicion. United States v. Pearson, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65260 (C.D. Cal. April 28, 2017).* “Based upon … Continue reading