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Recent Posts
- N.D.Tex.: AUSA can summarize what the gov’t knows for SW application
- S.D.N.Y.: No right to quash SCA warrant before execution; remedies are after
- S.D.N.Y.: SW not based on mere speculation
- D.Mont.: Officers had RS for stop; it wasn’t based on the race of the suspects
- M.D.Pa.: SW for phone 19 months after alleged crimes showed PC
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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)
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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: February 2020
CA11: The Heck bar is to the cause of action; it isn’t jurisdictional
The Heck bar is to the cause of action; it isn’t jurisdictional. Teagan v. City of McDonough, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 4055 (11th Cir. Feb. 11, 2020):
WaPo: Mike Bloomberg ignored early evidence that ‘stop-and-frisk’ could be racially biased
WaPo: Mike Bloomberg ignored early evidence that ‘stop-and-frisk’ could be racially biased by Victor Ray:
CA7: Shooting at car fleeing recklessly from detention was reasonable
Shooting at plaintiff’s car was reasonable when he refused to respond to officers who showed up for a shots fired call and then plaintiff fled squealing his tires. Smith v. Adams, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 4066 (7th Cir. Feb. 11, … Continue reading
LA: Truck driver who phoned in report of passed out driver with gun in lap on busy NOLA bridge was not “anonymous”
Defendant was stopped and apparently passed out on the Claiborne Street bridge in New Orleans. A truck driver called in to report it and that defendant had a gun in his lap. Then an accident occurred. The trial court erred … Continue reading
Vox: The world’s scariest facial recognition software, explained
Vox: The world’s scariest facial recognition software, explained By Rebecca Heilweil (“Clearview AI built a massive database of faces that it’s making available to law enforcement, and nobody’s stopping it.”)
NE: Failure to show any prejudice in 4A IAC claim doomed post-conviction case
Defense counsel at trial didn’t object to a search. Appellate counsel attempted to argue it but it was waived. Post-conviction counsel doesn’t even attempt to show prejudice from the failure of trial counsel. Affirmed. State v. Assad, 304 Neb. 979 … Continue reading
SSRN: Decryption Originalism: The Lessons of Burr
SSRN: Decryption Originalism: The Lessons of Burr by Orin S. Kerr. Abstract:
Cal.4: SDT for financial records in a pollution investigation to properly assess penalty was reasonable
The state’s subpoena for records in a pollution investigation were statutorily based, within the agency’s jurisdiction, and reasonable in scope. Here, the records were financial, and it was for imposing a reasonable penalty. The subpoena also did not violate a … Continue reading
S.D.Cal.: USMC spotter working with CBP didn’t violate Posse Comitatus Act
A US Marine working the border spotted a potential illegal crossing through a scope and reported it to the Border Patrol who made the stop and arrest. The Posse Comitatus Act as interpreted by the Ninth Circuit applies to the … Continue reading
Policeone.com: The constitutionality of blood draws in DWI cases: 3 recent SCOTUS opinions
Policeone.com: The constitutionality of blood draws in DWI cases: 3 recent SCOTUS opinions by Mike Callahan (the lede is about arresting a nurse for refusing a blood draw: “This incident was certainly a bad day for Nurse Wubbels, but it … Continue reading
Minn. L. Rev.: The Fourth Amendment Implications of “U.S. Imitation Judges”
104 Minn. L. Rev. 1275: The Fourth Amendment Implications of “U.S. Imitation Judges” by Mary Holper:
Reason: The Volokh Conspiracy: The Role of Originalism in Torres v. Madrid
Reason: The Volokh Conspiracy: The Role of Originalism in Torres v. Madrid by Orin S. Kerr (“Some preliminary thoughts on a fascinating case.”)
CA2: Whether ptf’s handcuffs were too tight and injured him was question of fact not to be resolved on summary judgment
Whether plaintiff’s handcuffs were too tight was a question to be resolved by a trial and not on summary judgment here. Horace v. Gibbs, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 3823 (2d Cir. Feb. 6, 2020). There was still probable cause for … Continue reading
CA6: Def’s volunteering to officer “he was working with a DEA agent but because his status was classified” contributed to RS
“But even assuming the officers had exceeded the time needed to handle the traffic stop, Officer Ullrich had reasonable suspicion to use the drug dog. As Officer Ullrich approached Jackson’s car after making the traffic stop, Jackson made numerous unprompted … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Furtive movement as car was stopping was RS
Defendant’s furtive movement as car stopped was reasonable suspicion. United States v. Young, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21367 (W.D. Mo. Jan. 22, 2020). Comparing numbers from search warrant obtained text and call history and CSLI for defendant’s phone provided probable … Continue reading
Reuters: Coronavirus brings China’s surveillance state out of the shadows
Reuters: Coronavirus brings China’s surveillance state out of the shadows by Yingzhi Yang & Julie Zhu (“When the man from Hangzhou returned home from a business trip, the local police got in touch. They had tracked his car by his … Continue reading
The Atlantic: A World Without Privacy Will Revive the Masquerade
The Atlantic: A World Without Privacy Will Revive the Masquerade by Jonathan Kittrain (“As the growing scale of facial recognition shows, more data can always be extracted.”)
Slate: Clearview’s Terrifying Facial Recognition Can’t Go Back in the Bottle
Slate: Clearview’s Terrifying Facial Recognition Can’t Go Back in the Bottle by Aaron Mak (“Around half a dozen big tech companies have now demanded that Clearview AI, the now-notorious facial recognition company that has scraped more than 3 billion images … Continue reading
NYTimes: Opinion: The Government Uses ‘Near Perfect Surveillance’ Data on Americans
NYTimes: Opinion: The Government Uses ‘Near Perfect Surveillance’ Data on Americans (“Congressional hearings are urgently needed to address location tracking.”)