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- D.R.I.: Defense attorney’s affidavit for Franks motion was insufficient for lack of personal knowledge
- Philadelphia Inquirer: Two Philadelphia police officers stopped hundreds of Black men on the street. Lawyers say the stops were illegal and racially biased.
- Reason: Iowa Man Seen in Viral Body Camera Footage Wins $105,000 Wrongful Arrest Lawsuit
- Wired: Wrongful Arrest Exposes Failures in One of the Oldest Police Face-Recognition Tools in the US
- W.D.Mo.: ALPR information helped support RS
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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. 
Author Archives: Hall
N.D.Cal.: No standing in ALPR info of car def didn’t drive
Defendant’s motion to suppress automated license plate reader (ALPR) data on the family car that he didn’t drive is denied for lack of standing. Also, the holder of the information was a third-party contractor. United States v. Butler, 2024 U.S. … Continue reading
MT: RS def was too drunk to drive from description, allegedly crawling to car, then officer talking to him
The citizen informant’s defendant was too drunk to drive because he stumbled and crawled to his car was corroborated by observations and smelling him, so there was at least reasonable suspicion. Defendant’s claim that his bar receipt from inside the … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Passenger putting something under the seat shows no REP
A passenger putting something under the seat when in a car manifests no reasonable expectation of privacy and thus no standing. United States v. Dunnell, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 124927 (D. Mass. July 16, 2024). (Apparently one needs to keep … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Exposure to Covid-19 in prison doesn’t state a 4A or 8A claim
Exposure to Covid-19 in prison didn’t state a Fourth or Eighth Amendment claim. Dingle v. Tommage, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 124710 (E.D. Pa. July 16, 2024). Defendant was driving with a suspended license, and WVSP protocol dictated impoundment of the … Continue reading
D.Md.: Review of PC isn’t as skeptical as def requests
“Here, the affidavit easily meets the standard of probable cause. Defendants would require a level of skepticism that is not appropriate to the oversight at this juncture. The scheme to defraud was amply established by the affiant and so was … Continue reading
NM: 19-day delay getting a SW for a computer was reasonable considering the diminished possessory interest in it
“The district court concluded, after weighing Defendant’s diminished possessory interest in the tablet and the legitimate interests of law enforcement, that under the circumstances, the nineteen-day delay between when the tablet was seized and when a search warrant was obtained … Continue reading
Reason: Internet Preservation and the Fourth Amendment—Case Updates, Part I
Reason, The Volokh Conspiracy: Internet Preservation and the Fourth Amendment—Case Updates, Part I by Orin S. Kerr (“The first of two rulings, and why I find it unpersuasive.”):
OH4: Waiting for backup was prudent for delaying dog sniff even though there was no RS
With a late night stop of a person that had a drug history and the officer was outnumbered, it was prudent to call for backup before the dog sniff, and the total elapsed time wasn’t that much. The court of … Continue reading
CA3: No per se irreparable injury from 4A violation
The Third Circuit does not find per se irreparable injury from a Fourth Amendment violation, recognizing a conflict in the circuits. Del. State Sportsmen’s Ass’n v. Del. Dep’t of Safety & Homeland Sec., 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 17214 (3d Cir. … Continue reading
UT: Def satisfied “shocking the conscience” standard for recording a telephone call while under a protective order and he couldn’t fully respond
The court finds officers baiting defendant into a recorded phone call where he was under a protective order and could not adequately respond “shocked the conscience” and would be suppressed. State v. Lewis, 2024 UT App 96, 2024 Utah App. … Continue reading
D.Md.: Asking a person to be frisked what’s on him can’t be used to justify the frisk
Asking a person about whether he has anything on him about sharp objects is reasonable and related to the frisk. Any admission cannot, however, be used to justify the frisk. United States v. Freeman, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 123297 (D. … Continue reading
M.D.La.: Strip searches in investigative stops is enjoined
The Baton Rouge PD’s strip search policy of detainees in an investigative stop on less than probable cause is enjoined. “[T]he Court finds that, for any search beyond a frisk or pat-down of a citizen stopped pursuant to an investigatory … Continue reading
LA4: Being seen in a “drug hot spot” adds nothing to RS
Being seen in NOLA “drug hot spots” doesn’t add anything to reasonable suspicion. Suppression affirmed. State v. Tate, 2024 La. App. LEXIS 1107 (La. App. 4 Cir. July 11, 2024). The complainant’s telling the police of being drugged for sex … Continue reading
CA2: Excessive force claims are new under Bivens and can’t be brought
Excessive force claims are new for Bivens, and rejected. Here, it was his restraint in a courtroom by US Marshals and CSOs. Edwards v. Gizzi, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 17100 (2d Cir. July 12, 2024). Plaintiff was shot in the … Continue reading
CA11: No co-conspirator standing in two cars
Here there were two vehicles stopped. Defendant was a passenger in one, and he had no standing in either merely being a co-conspirator to a drug operation. United States v. Lewis, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 16803 (11th Cir. July 10, … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Military command authorized search for CP on electronics was valid; listing IP addresses of devices not required
Defendant was in the Marine Corps and a Command Authorized Search and Seizure (CASS) for his electronic devices was executed for child pornography. It was sufficiently particular to satisfy the Fourth Amendment. “In this case, the challenged warrant did not … Continue reading