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- 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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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)
ACLU on privacy
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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: November 2017
LA5: Five armed robberies in a month was exigency for ping order; GFE applied, too
Police developed defendant as a suspect in a string of five armed robberies in a month, and they sought and obtained an exigent circumstances cell phone ping order of defendant’s phone. His argument is that there were no exigent circumstances … Continue reading
IA: Dad can’t raise son’s rights when son was arrested and gave dad up as his source of drugs
Defendant’s juvenile son was selling from his dad’s stash. After the son’s arrest, he gave up his source. Defendant can’t raise violations of his son’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment or statutory rights as a juvenile to challenge the probable cause … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Misreading a “hot sheet” for stop of a car was objectively reasonable mistake
Police had a “hot sheet,” a list of stolen cars from a car dealership, and were on the look out. “In this case, Officer Palmer believed that the red Dodge Challenger had been stolen from the dealership in Excelsior Springs, … Continue reading
D.N.M.: There was at least circumstantial evidence defs’ DNA would be found in evidence to justify SW for it
There was sufficient probable cause defendants were involved in a robbery and could be linked to evidence in the case for DNA samples to be taken from them by search warrants. “Although the Search Warrant lacks direct evidence that the … Continue reading
D.Haw.: Using three people to mask defendant’s alleged ownership of a package was a lack of standing in the package
“Here, Defendant Notyce was neither the sender nor the addressee of the package. The parcel was not addressed to him or a physical location associated with him. Defendant Notyce did not retrieve the parcel from the post office box or … Continue reading
NPR: Texas Gunman’s Locked Cellphone Renews Debate Over Encryption
NPR: Texas Gunman’s Locked Cellphone Renews Debate Over Encryption by Samantha Raphelson: The FBI is blaming the tech industry’s encryption standard on its inability to unlock the cellphone of the Texas shooter. But some experts say if the FBI acted … Continue reading
The Atlantic: Are Face Scans Resurrecting the False Science of Physiognomy?
The Atlantic: Are Face Scans Resurrecting the False Science of Physiognomy? by Jesse Emspak: Many researchers fear the consequences of training computers to identify a person’s sexual orientation and criminality based solely on physical appearance.
The Cap Times: Wisconsin Assembly approves bill to limit release of police body camera footage
The Cap Times: Wisconsin Assembly approves bill to limit release of police body camera footage by Jessie Opoien: Public access to police body camera footage would be limited under a bill approved Thursday by the Wisconsin Assembly. The legislation is … Continue reading
EFF: House Judiciary Committee Forced Into Difficult Compromise On Surveillance Reform
EFF: House Judiciary Committee Forced Into Difficult Compromise On Surveillance Reform by David Ruiz
Reason: Showdown Looming over Reform of Federal Surveillance Laws
Reason: Showdown Looming over Reform of Federal Surveillance Laws by Scott Shackford: The House Judiciary Committee has advanced a bill that would provide Americans modest protections from unwarranted surveillance, but falls far short of what civil liberties and privacy groups … Continue reading
Just Security: Modernizing ECPA: We need Congressional action despite DOJ’s new gag order guidelines
Just Security: Modernizing ECPA: We need Congressional action despite DOJ’s new gag order guidelines By Ali Cooper-Ponte:
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: Alabama task force performs drug raid, man dies. Officials take his home, split the proceeds.
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: Alabama task force performs drug raid, man dies. Officials take his home, split the proceeds. by Radley Balko: The court that was supposed to be neutral and fair in all of this got a cut of the … Continue reading
Post and Courier: Thousands of arrest warrants for low-level offenders recalled under directive from South Carolina’s chief justice
Post and Courier: Thousands of arrest warrants for low-level offenders recalled under directive from South Carolina’s chief justice by Andrew Knapp:
Cal.3d: Domestic battery conviction didn’t support cell phone probation search condition
A broad probation electronics search condition for domestic battery was constitutionally overbroad because it doesn’t sufficiently serve the state’s interests compared to the crime of conviction. A cell phone has far too much information on it to make it so … Continue reading
NY2: Def’s stop exceeded reasonableness; search reversed
Defendant’s stop exceeded the time necessary for its completion and became unreasonable. The product of the search can’t be used to justify it. [All the serious counts are reversed. Note: Defendant was convicted Sept. 26, 2013, 49½ months before this … Continue reading
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Public would be kept from getting police body camera footage under Wisconsin bill
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Public would be kept from getting police body camera footage under Wisconsin bill by Patrick Marley: MADISON – Police body camera footage would be kept from the public in many cases,under a bill the state Assembly is … Continue reading
The Hill: House Judiciary advances warrantless wiretapping reform bill
The Hill: House Judiciary advances warrantless wiretapping reform bill by Katie Bo Williams:
Miami Herald: Feds want cash seized in a raid last year, so they’re suing the cash
Miami Herald: Feds want cash seized in a raid last year, so they’re suing the cash by David Goodhue: The federal government is suing a bundle of cash seized in a drug raid last year near Key West that turned … Continue reading
The Register: US domestic foreign spying bill progresses through Congress
The Register: US domestic foreign spying bill progresses through Congress by Kieren McCarthy