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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)
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: May 2018
VI: In a traffic stop, def delayed in getting out and made furtive movements; officer asked “what do you have there?” Answer [“Just some weed.”] wasn’t 5A violation under Berkemer
Defendant was stopped for passing on a double solid line. The officer called out through the vehicle PA for him to get out of the car, but he first fished around moving things. When the officer got to the window, … Continue reading
Or: Officers didn’t violate def’s privacy by looking under bathroom stall door to see him masturbating
Officers did not violate defendant’s privacy rights in looking under the door from 5′ away to see that he was masturbating and ordering him out. The officers’ look violated no “social norms or [did it] significantly impair defendant’s interest in … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Def could be seized under the SW for the business searched when he was found near the door heading in
The narcs timed execution of a search warrant for when defendant’s heroin dealer would arrive. He was near the front door when the police arrived, and he could be detained under Summers and Bailey. United States v. Jones, 2018 U.S. … Continue reading
Business Insider: How to delete your DNA data from genetics companies like 23andMe and Ancestry
Business Insider: How to delete your DNA data from genetics companies like 23andMe and Ancestry by Erin Brodwin:
NYTimes: N.S.A. Triples Collection of Data From U.S. Phone Companies
NYTimes: N.S.A. Triples Collection of Data From U.S. Phone Companies by Charlie Savage:
NYTimes: Drug Arrests at Immigration Checkpoint Violated Constitution, New Hampshire Court Finds
NYTimes: Drug Arrests at Immigration Checkpoint Violated Constitution, New Hampshire Court Finds by Ron Nixon:
CA4: It’s a reasonable inference that evidence of bank fraud will be found at home
It is a reasonable inference that records of bank fraud would be found in defendant’s home because it is usually kept for many years. The officer stated this in the affidavit for the search warrant as based on his experience, … Continue reading
NY4: Oral motion to suppress denied; has to be written
An oral motion to suppress fails. It was required to be in writing for the record. People v. Hinojoso-Soto, 2018 NY Slip Op 03264, 2018 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3195 (4th Dept. May 4, 2018). Driving a car at a … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: A cell phone left in an abandoned car is also abandoned
A cell phone left in an abandoned car is also abandoned. United States v. Green, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75738 (E.D. Ky. May 4, 2018). The police had a search warrant for animal fighting for the dogs and papers for … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Previous finding of good faith applies to later Franks challenge
Defendant had already filed a suppression motion and lost on good faith. Now he files a motion based on Franks that statements of witnesses in quote marks weren’t accurate. The previous finding of good faith carries over to here, and … Continue reading
Because Facebook makes people dumb:
Defendant was linked to a carjacking. A search of his cell phone showed a video of him posted live to Facebook of him driving the victim’s car, wearing the victim’s watch, and counting the victim’s Cuban money. The video was … Continue reading
AR: The right to counsel applies at suppression hearings
The right to counsel applies at suppression hearings. Defendant’s attempted waiver was ineffective. Shabazz v. State, 2018 Ark. App. 281, 2018 Ark. App. LEXIS 298 (May 2, 2018). The officer writing the affidavit misstated the evidence that another officer smelled … Continue reading
NY: Partially inaccurate statement as to admissibility at trial of refusal of BAC test required suppression
“In sum, because the warnings given to defendant were at least partially inaccurate — i.e., as to the admissibility at trial of his refusal to submit to testing — the courts below properly suppressed the results of the breathalyzer test … Continue reading
DE: Search of jail cell seizing legal materials violated 6A; dismissal of indictment required
The search of defendant’s prison cell seizing his legal materials without judicial approval violated his Sixth Amendment rights, not his Fourth Amendment rights. The lead prosecutor in his case reviewed the legal materials. The state should have used a taint … Continue reading
W.D.N.C.: Being parked in the middle of the road with the engine running is RS
“In this case, the evidence is clear that Officer Paxton observed a Mercedes Benz parked in the middle of the road with its engine running and lights on. After his initial approach to the car, he discovered that both the … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Showing of nexus was not bare bones; it was a reasonable inference on totality
The showing of nexus was thin, but not bare bones, and it was reasonable to infer that evidence of three robberies would be found where he was staying with his girlfriend. There clearly was probable cause to arrest him in … Continue reading
NYTimes: The Cold Case That Inspired the ‘Golden State Killer’ Detective to Try Genealogy
NYTimes: The Cold Case That Inspired the ‘Golden State Killer’ Detective to Try Genealogy by Tim Arango: Before investigators in California say they solved a decades-old case of rape and murder using a genealogy website, the only other known case … Continue reading
Montgomery Advertiser: Opinion: Policing for profit prevails at Alabama Legislature
Montgomery Advertiser: Opinion: Policing for profit prevails at Alabama Legislature by Leah Nelson and Shay Farley, Alabama Voices:
Wired UK: Facial recognition tech used by UK police is making a ton of mistakes
Wired UK: Facial recognition tech used by UK police is making a ton of mistakes by Matt Burgess: South Wales Police, London’s Met and Leicestershire have all been trialling automated facial recognition in public places. But a lack of legal … Continue reading