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- 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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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: October 2018
WaPo: Opinion: Black men–not white guys–face false allegations and a presumption of guilt
WaPo: Opinion: Black men–not white guys–face false allegations and a presumption of guilt by Petula Dvorak: From stop-and-frisk to driving while black to wrongful murder convictions, African American men have always endured the suspicion that President Trump now fears on … Continue reading
DE animal control officers can get arrest warrants for animal offenses
Animal control officers in Delaware have the authority to obtain arrest warrants for animal control laws. Smith v. First State Animal Center, 2018 Del. Super. LEXIS 423 (Oct. 4, 2018).* Excessive window tinting justified the stop, and the officer didn’t … Continue reading
The Atlantic: The Chicago Culture That Created Jason Van Dyke
The Atlantic: The Chicago Culture That Created Jason Van Dyke by Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve: Judges who questioned the veracity of police testimony were considered disrespectful traitors and were treated as such.
IN: Pirtle on advice of rights before person in custody asked for consent doesn’t apply to DRE
Defendant has no right to counsel before being asked for consent to a DRE. Pirtle on advice of rights before obtaining consent from a person in custody doesn’t apply here. Dycus v. State, 2018 Ind. LEXIS 564 (Oct. 3, 2018):
Chicago Sun-Times: Trump wants Chicago cops to have more stop-and-frisk power; bad idea, says Rahm
Chicago Sun-Times: Trump wants Chicago cops to have more stop-and-frisk power; bad idea, says Rahm by Lynn Sweet, Frank Main, Fran Spielman:
NPR: Why The Tech Industry Wants Federal Control Over Data Privacy Laws
NPR: Why The Tech Industry Wants Federal Control Over Data Privacy Laws by Dina Temple-Raston
NYTimes: Police Use Fitbit Data to Charge 90-Year-Old Man in Stepdaughter’s Killing
NYTimes: Police Use Fitbit Data to Charge 90-Year-Old Man in Stepdaughter’s Killing by Christine Hauser:
CA5: Search incident of open envelope on person of arrestee for bank robbery was valid; it had the note
Defendant was arrested for bank robbery, and an open envelope on his person containing the bank robbery note was subject to search incident even though it was removed from him and not searched for maybe five minutes after the arrest. … Continue reading
FL1: Collective knowledge applies to affidavit for SW in CP case
The affiant on a child pornography search warrant doesn’t have to personally view the material. He can relate what another officer said who did see it under the collective knowledge doctrine. Mardosas v. State, 2018 Fla. App. LEXIS 14012 (Fla. … Continue reading
OH6: SW with nighttime search authorization can be executed in daytime, too
A search warrant with a nighttime search authorization can be executed in the daytime, too. State v. Flores, 2018-Ohio-3980, 2018 Ohio App. LEXIS 4307 (6th Dist. Oct. 1, 2018) [Daytime warrant execution is just safer. That’s why there’s a high … Continue reading
TX: No IAC for def counsel not forecasting change in 4A law
Defense counsel was not ineffective for not forecasting McNeeley before defendant’s guilty plea. “When a defendant waives the right to have a jury determine guilt or innocence and admits or does not contest guilt, the defendant does so under the … Continue reading
CA7: In a wiretap application, only def’s nickname was sufficient when PC is shown
Defendant on a wiretap application was only known by his nickname, and this did nothing to alter the probable cause analysis nor undermine probable cause. United States v. Santiago, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 27919 (7th Cir. Oct. 2, 2018) (there’s … Continue reading
WaPo: Opinion: The tech industry is suddenly pushing for federal privacy legislation. Watch out.
WaPo: Opinion: The tech industry is suddenly pushing for federal privacy legislation. Watch out. by Neema Singh Guliani: We should be highly skeptical of any proposal that would wipe out existing privacy laws that protect consumers or foreclose states from … Continue reading
NYLJ: NYPD Cop Beaten by Fellow Officers During 911 Call Gains $8M Judgment
NYLJ: NYPD Cop Beaten by Fellow Officers During 911 Call Gains $8M Judgment by Andrew Denney: A federal judge has signed off on an $8 million judgment in favor of a New York City police officer who was brutally beaten … Continue reading
EFF: New York City Home-Sharing Ordinance Could Create Privacy Nightmare
EFF: New York City Home-Sharing Ordinance Could Create Privacy Nightmare by Rebecca Jeschke: Many cities across the country are struggling with issues surrounding short-term vacation rentals and how they affect the availability and price of housing for local residents. However, … Continue reading
Vice News: Tim Cook: “I hope I never see again” how the FBI came for Apple after San Bernardino
Vice News: Tim Cook: “I hope I never see again” how the FBI came for Apple after San Bernardino by Valarie Kipnis:
CA11: Not calling def at suppression hearing was [a founded] strategy decision
Defense counsel’s decision not to call the defendant or other witnesses at a suppression hearing was a strategy decision not subject to second guessing except in extraordinary circumstances. Defense counsel concluded they lacked credibility. Here, defendant testified at trial to … Continue reading
OH8: State had to argue plain view to trial court to argue it on appeal
The state’s plain view argument wasn’t pressed in the trial court, so it can’t be a basis for appeal. Even on the merits, the state loses because the stop was invalid, and the detention unreasonable all before the alleged plain … Continue reading