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Recent Posts
- 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
- D.Utah: Minor time detours to writing up a traffic ticket didn’t unreasonable extend this stop; the dog was quickly on its way
- KY: Despite lack of nexus, SW sustained under GFE
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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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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: April 2018
E.D.Mich.: No PC for the warrant, but it wasn’t “so lacking” in PC that the GFE wouldn’t apply
There was no probable cause for issuance of the search warrant, but it wasn’t “so lacking” in probable cause because there was at least something. “The officers, therefore, acted in good faith in executing the warrant because, although the affidavit … Continue reading
D.Neb.: The gov’t put def on notice standing was an issue, and def didn’t respond with proof; no standing
The government argued no standing. “Despite being on notice that standing was an issue, Defendant did not introduce evidence at the suppression hearing to establish his relationship to the property searched in this case.” Going to the merits anyway, defendant … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: No standing to complain of CSLI for somebody else’s phone
Defendants have no standing to challenge the seizure of CSLI on telephone numbers they don’t complain are theirs. United States v. Pizarro, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 60539 (S.D. N.Y. Apr. 10, 2018).* Police seizure of an SD card was by … Continue reading
W.D.N.C.: 2255 is not the place to first litigate a suppression motion
2255 petitioner can’t raise his search and seizure claim via post-conviction relief where there was no effort to pursue the issue in the case on the merits. Even if he could, he’d lose on the merits of the search because … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: SW particularity and the scope of search that occurred are separate “arguments [that] must not be confused”
The search warrant was particular, and the search was not overbroad, confined within the scope of the warrant. They are separate “arguments [that] must not be confused.” United States v. Aley, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59527 (W.D. Ky. Apr. 9, … Continue reading
PACER text entry
(This is a TEXT ENTRY ONLY. There is no pdf document associated with this entry.) ORDER granting Plaintiff’s motion to extend time 85. It appears Defendant R. Johnson refused service by mail 69. Plaintiff appears to believe the U.S. government … Continue reading
Baltimore Sun: Opinion: Predicting more biased policing in Baltimore
Baltimore Sun: Opinion: Predicting more biased policing in Baltimore: Police Commissioner Darryl De Sousa and Mayor Catherine Pugh recently announced measures meant to reduce violent crime in Baltimore, including ‘predictive policing,’ which they plan to be fully operational in the … Continue reading
US News & World Report: Judge: NYPD Cellphone Tracking Tech to Remain Secret
US News & World Report: Judge: NYPD Cellphone Tracking Tech to Remain Secret by AP: The New York Police Department won’t have to release details about its portable cellphone tracking system commonly known as Stingrays.”
NYTimes: Opinion: Don’t Let the Police Wreck Stop-and-Frisk Reforms
NYTimes: Opinion: Don’t Let the Police Wreck Stop-and-Frisk Reforms: We won the stop-and-frisk case in 2013, when a federal court ruled the New York City Police Department’s use of the practice was unconstitutional. But as the lawyers in the case, … Continue reading
NH: Warrantless DNA testing of blood obtained from hospital if error was harmless
Defendant was driving in a car crash that critically injured him and his passenger. He came to the ER, and the hospital drew five vials of blood for diagnostic testing for his condition. At the hearing all that it would … Continue reading
M.D.Tenn.: Even if Karo didn’t permit monitoring a tracker on a package brought into the house, there was PC anyway
Even if Karo required excising or excluding the statement in the affidavit for search warrant that the package was in the target residence for the anticipatory warrant, there was probable cause without it, so it doesn’t matter. United States v. … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: Emergency aid exception doesn’t apply to justify entry where victims are accounted for outside
The government didn’t meet its burden of showing the emergency aid exception applied where all the purported victims were accounted for and outside the apartment they wanted to search. The protective sweep doctrine as an alternative doesn’t apply here because … Continue reading
Family emergency took me away. New cases again tomorrow
As soon as I get back I have to prepare for a 5 pm hearing.
Cato: Introducing “Checkpoint: America”
Cato: Introducing “Checkpoint: America” by Patrick G. Eddington
Reuters: Law firm raids bode ill for lawyers and their clients – legal experts
Reuters: Law firm raids bode ill for lawyers and their clients – legal experts by Alison Frankel:
Volokh Conspiracy: In Decryption Cases, Don’t Forget the Fourth Amendment
Volokh Conspiracy: In Decryption Cases, Don’t Forget the Fourth Amendment by Orin Kerr: Requiring a search warrant isn’t everything. But it isn’t nothing.
Wired: DC’s Stingray Mess Won’t Get Cleaned Up
Wired: DC’s Stingray Mess Won’t Get Cleaned Up by Lily Hay Newman:
OH8: Administrative PC shown for sewer water search
The city justified issuance of an administrative warrant for investigation of sewer water contamination under Camara. Administrative probable cause was shown, and the search was reasonable. Dawson v. City of Richmond Heights, 2018-Ohio-1301, 2018 Ohio App. LEXIS 1440 (8th Dist. … Continue reading
Volokh Conspiracy: Two New Cases on Decrypting Locked Devices by Orin Kerr
Volokh Conspiracy: Two New Cases on Decrypting Locked Devices by Orin Kerr One on the Fifth Amendment, and one on Miranda. Both correctly decided, I think.