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- 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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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)
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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: September 2020
The Intercept: Operation Legend is Bringing Surveillance Tech to Cities
The Intercept: Operation Legend is Bringing Surveillance Tech to Cities by Ktaya Schwenk (“Using federal grants, cities are contracting with companies that hack smartphones and detect gunshots.”)
AP: Appeals court hears Baltimore’s aerial surveillance case
AP: Appeals court hears Baltimore’s aerial surveillance case by Regina Garcia Cano (“A panel of federal appeals court judges on Thursday appeared to have differing views on whether an aerial surveillance program in Baltimore should continue to be tested as … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Stone precludes CSLI claims from before Carpenter was decided
2254 petitioner was barred from a CSLI claim because it wasn’t raised in state court where he had an opportunity to litigate. It’s no defense to attempt to overcome Stone preclusion that Carpenter came after the trial court decision because … Continue reading
CA3: Foreign search didn’t violate 4A
“Standing alone, foreign law enforcement officials sharing information gleaned from their own activities with United States authorities — even if cloaked in cooperative terms in agency reports — is not indicative of an impermissible joint venture, and thus, the District … Continue reading
AL: IAC claim not stated for not challenging failure to deliver copy of SW to def
Defendant didn’t adequately plead an ineffective assistance of counsel claim for defense counsel not arguing that defendant wasn’t given a copy of the search warrant at the time of the search so he could challenge the search. Smith v. State, … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Nexus shown between Facebook account and offense, despite 19 paragraphs of boilerplate
The government showed nexus between defendant’s Facebook account and the crime under investigation to justify the warrant, despite 19 paragraphs of boilerplate. United States v. Mize, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 166759 (S.D. Ohio Sept. 11, 2020):
CA4: Administrative search by nonregulatory officer invoking regulatory processes was unreasonable
A stop of a regulated truck for a regulatory inspection by an nonregulatory officer was unreasonable under the administrative search doctrine. Otherwise, it upends the Burger scheme. United States v. Feliciana, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 28881 (4th Cir. Sept. 11, … Continue reading
CA9: Gerstein applies to immigration arrests
Gerstein applies to immigration arrests in this class action. Plaintiff was a U.S. citizen detained by ICE. Gonzalez v. U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 28827 (9th Cir. Sept. 11, 2020). There was probable cause for a … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: SW authorized search of safe in house even though in room of another occupant
The search warrant authorized a search of a safe in a house even though the room it was in wasn’t occupied by the target of the search. The search warrant wasn’t stale because the drug activities it refers to were … Continue reading
CA5: Mistaken identity arrest for half brother with same name gets QI
Plaintiff’s case for a mistaken identity arrest when his half-brother with the same name was the target fails on qualified immunity. Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137 (1979) is close enough to show qualified immunity. Nerio v. Derekevans, 2020 U.S. … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Claim that stop was racially biased fails on merits
Defendant’s equal protection claim that his stop was racially motivated fails on the merits because there was a factual basis for the stop and the claim of racial bias has no evidentiary support. His effort to put the officer’s social … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Dep’t of Fish & Game checkpoint was reasonable
The Idaho Dep’t of Fish & Game division’s wildlife checkpoint here was reasonable under all the circumstances. Plaintiff wasn’t a hunter and his stop would have resulted in one question and he’d have been on his way. Tanner v. Schriever, … Continue reading
CA5: Alleged violations of the Posse Comitatus Act must be “widespread and repeated” to justify suppression
Alleged violations of the Posse Comitatus Act, here by AFOSI, must be “widespread and repeated” to justify suppression. Defendant didn’t show this was. United States v. Salinas, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 28616 (5th Cir. Sept. 9, 2020). “A detective assigned … Continue reading
CA9: Unjustified emergency entry didn’t become justified by learning of a supervised release search waiver
The officers’ warrantless entry into defendant’s home thinking he needed emergency assistance wasn’t justified. They took him out. They found he had a supervised release search waiver on file which they didn’t know about before. They reentered and searched under … Continue reading
Cal.2d: New crime during alleged illegal detention won’t be suppressed
Defendant’s new crime during alleged illegal detention will not be suppressed. Here, he doesn’t even plead enough to get a hearing. People v. Chavez, 2020 Cal. App. LEXIS 858 (2d Dist. Sept. 10, 2020). There was a substantial basis for … Continue reading
N.D.Miss.: In wrongful death action, officer’s subjective intent offered by 404(b) evidence is inadmissible; reasonableness is objective
Because the reasonableness standard is based on objective evidence confronting the officer, the use of 404(b) evidence here would be too extraneous to show subjective intent. “Because reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment is disconnected from an officer’s subjective intent, the … Continue reading
CNN Business: Portland passes broadest facial recognition ban in the US
CNN Business: Portland passes broadest facial recognition ban in the US by Rachel Metz (“The city of Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday banned the use of facial-recognition technology by city departments — including local police — as well as public-facing businesses … Continue reading
ProPublica: Over a Dozen Black and Latino Men Accused a Cop of Humiliating, Invasive Strip Searches. The NYPD Kept Promoting Him.
ProPublica: Over a Dozen Black and Latino Men Accused a Cop of Humiliating, Invasive Strip Searches. The NYPD Kept Promoting Him. by Joaquin Sapien, Topher Sanders & Nate Schweber (“The men said Assistant Chief Christopher McCormack touched them inappropriately during … Continue reading
PA: Unlawful entry justified suppressing the drugs but not the fact of the assault on the officers
The officers’ entry into defendant’s home was illegal and the drug evidence should have been suppressed. Defendant’s assault on the officers, however, would not be suppressed because it was a separate crime. Commonwealth v. Schneider, 2020 Pa. Super. LEXIS 775 … Continue reading