Archives
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Recent Posts
- 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
- D.C.Cir.: It was reasonable for officers to conclude that evidence or instrumentalities of the crime would be found in the car used in a robbery
- CA7: Officer’s warrantless view of CSAM flagged by hash value was not unreasonable
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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: October 2017
The Economist: More police departments and other first-responders are using drones
The Economist: More police departments and other first-responders are using drones
WA: Homeless man had REP in his tent camping in park after hours
A homeless man camping in a tent in Vancouver, WA had a privacy interest in his closed tent even though he was camping after hours. State v. Pippin, 2017 Wash. App. LEXIS 2365 (Oct. 10, 2017):
D.C.Cir.: Defense counsel not ineffective for not raising search issue where law was uncertain at best in jurisdiction
Counsel was not ineffective for failing to challenge evidence obtained from an electronic surveillance device (truck bug) unlawfully installed in a vehicle outside of the authorizing court’s geographic jurisdiction. In light of the deeply unsettled law on the question of … Continue reading
OH2 follows Heien on reasonable mistake of traffic law
Whether defendant properly stopped at the “stop bar” was at worst a reasonable mistake of law and thus still reasonable under Heien. Once stopped, the officer discovered defendant’s license was suspended. State v. Deacey, 2017-Ohio-8102, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 4457 … Continue reading
IL: PC for house comes from man leaving house in car registered at house to do a drug deal
There was a substantial basis for finding probable cause for a search warrant for defendant’s house where a man left the house to proceed directly to a drug transaction and the car was registered at that address. That’s sufficient nexus … Continue reading
MA: SW for def’s apt in drug case could authorize seizure of cell phone used to arrange drug transaction and orange shirt worn at time
The trial court erred in allowing defendant’s motion to suppress because the warrant affidavit established probable cause to believe defendant, acting through a middleman, sold cocaine to a street-level dealer. Thus, the seizure of nine cell phones found in defendant’s … Continue reading
NM: Def raised the Birchfield issue in trial court, and it applied even though case not decided until on appellate review
Birchfield applied to a case on appeal where defendant raised the issue at trial and Birchfeild came down during appellate review. State v. Vargas, 2017 N.M. LEXIS 71 (Oct. 5, 2017). When defendant was told to “take a seat” in … Continue reading
Police One: Legal, privacy concerns to consider before implementing iris-scanning technology
Police One: Legal, privacy concerns to consider before implementing iris-scanning technology by Val Van Brocklin Looking at some public concerns and legal issues can help law enforcement plan its use of the evolving technology
Fortune: How the Justice Department’s Facebook Subpoenas Threaten Free Speech
Fortune: How the Justice Department’s Facebook Subpoenas Threaten Free Speech by Aziz Hug: In recent months, the U.S. Justice Department has issued subpoenas against Facebook and web host DreamHost for records of thousands, perhaps millions, of citizens who expressed interest … Continue reading
The Register (UK): ‘There has never been a right to absolute privacy’ – US deputy AG slams ‘warrant-proof’ crypto
The Register (UK): ‘There has never been a right to absolute privacy’ – US deputy AG slams ‘warrant-proof’ crypto by Richard Chirgwin: Continuing the US government’s menacing of strong end-to-end encryption, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told an audience at … Continue reading
ABC News: Utah officer fired for handcuffing, dragging screaming nurse out of hospital
ABC News: Utah officer fired for handcuffing, dragging screaming nurse out of hospital by Karma Allen: The Salt Lake City police officer featured in a widely viewed video aggressively handcuffing a hospital The Salt Lake City police officer featured in … Continue reading
techdirt: Three Energy Bills Look To Increase Fourth Amendment Protections For Americans
techdirt: Three Energy Bills Look To Increase Fourth Amendment Protections For Americans by Tim Cushing:
NC: Make and model of a firearm isn’t required for PC as long as it’s described as similar
That a gun matched the description of defendant’s gun was still probable cause on this record. The police didn’t have to have the make and model of the gun to have probable cause. State v. Messer, 2017 N.C. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
WaPo: Commit a crime? Your Fitbit, key fob or pacemaker could snitch on you.
WaPo: Commit a crime? Your Fitbit, key fob or pacemaker could snitch on you. by Justin Jouvenal: With no witnesses other than Richard, detectives turned to the vast array of data and sensors that increasingly surround us. An important bit … Continue reading
Marianas Variety: AG says random drug tests in GovGuam forbidden, with some exemptions
After seeing at least a half dozen news articles on this, finally I’ll post something while Guam still exists: Marianas Variety: AG says random drug tests in GovGuam forbidden, with some exemptions:
D.Mass.: Being jailed is not an abandonment of property in a storage unit
“The court acknowledges the government’s point that Moran did not retain a key to the storage unit once he was jailed, and that Moran had appeared perfectly amenable to the bags being placed in Alysha’s more heavily-trafficked apartment rather than … Continue reading
CA11: Parolee has no REP where he stays
Officers had cause for a protective sweep as well as consent from defendant’s girlfriend to search her apartment where he often stayed. A shotgun was in plain view. Defendant also had no standing because he was a parolee. United States … Continue reading
CA6: Search incident permitted for arrest on parole absconder warrant
Search incident to arrest is proper on an arrest on parole absconder warrant. Witzke v. Bradley, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 23965 (6th Cir. Dec. 30, 2016). The officer developed reasonable suspicion to continue the stop to bring in the drug … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Even though PA requires PC for certain traffic stops, 4A doesn’t
Pennsylvania’s requirement of probable cause for lane violations isn’t binding in federal court under the Fourth Amendment. “Accordingly, even though a Pennsylvania court may have held that Officer Sampere required probable cause to pull Defendant over for a violation of … Continue reading