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Recent Posts
- IN: Overdose call led to EMS telling police what they saw and that led to SW
- NY1: A mental health defense waives REP in the medical records about it
- MA: When a likely Franks violation comes out at trial, def gets to reopen the suppression issue
- RI: Challenge to one sentence of 8-page cell phone records SW fails; totality has to be considered
- WaPo: Subpoena bill would curtail secretive tool used to target government critics
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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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Section 1983 Blog -
"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. 
Category Archives: Uncategorized
N.D.Fla.: Drug officers with PC can use patrol officers to make a stop on a traffic offense
Drug officers had probable cause but used patrol officers to make a stop based on a traffic offense, which there also was. The initial probable cause controls here. United States v. Green, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 126663 (N.D. Fla. July … Continue reading
CA7: “The Fourth Amendment does not require best practices in criminal investigations.” Just PC
“The Fourth Amendment does not require best practices in criminal investigations.” That a controlled buy could have been done better doesn’t mean there wasn’t probable cause. United States v. Glenn, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 22544 (7th Cir. July 20, 2020):
CA10: USDC isn’t obligated to draw same Franks inferences the def does
When a defendant makes a Franks challenge, the court is not obliged to make the same inference he makes in determining whether he gets a hearing. Franks requires a “substantial preliminary showing” of recklessness or acting intentionally along with materiality. … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Tower dump order different than long term CSLI; § 2703 order suffices under Carpenter
“In light of the significant differences between a tower dump CLSI and long term CSLI targeted at the whole of an individual’s movements, as highlighted by the court’s decision in Carpenter, the court finds no basis for attaching a Fourth … Continue reading
D.D.C.: ShotSpotter alert and being in a high-crime area late at night was not RS
A ShotSpotter alert led to defendant’s stop in a high-crime area late at night. On the totality, there was no reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop. Therefore, his flight after the stop began didn’t end the inquiry. United States v. Carter, … Continue reading
techdirt: Reverse Warrant Used In Robbery Investigation Being Challenged As Unconstitutional
techdirt: Reverse Warrant Used In Robbery Investigation Being Challenged As Unconstitutional by Tim Cushing (“Reverse warrants are being challenged in a criminal case involving a bank robbery in Virginia. These warrants (also called ‘geofence warrants’) work in reverse, hence the … Continue reading
CA9: While a 911 call must be reliable, it must also refer to “criminal activity [that] may be afoot”
While a 911 call must be reliable, it must also refer to “criminal activity [that] may be afoot.” This satisfies both prongs. United States v. Vandergroen, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 21150 (9th Cir. July 7, 2020):
IN: Law firm’s suit over fees for work complying with GJ subpoena to client leads to reduced fees
The law firm sued over its attorneys fees in complying with federal grand jury subpoenas for a client after a search warrant directed to the client. The trial court made findings of fact finding the reasonable fee one-third of what … Continue reading
TX: Perjured police testimony in drug raid leads to finding of actual innocence
Petitioner showed actual innocence to get his drug conviction set aside. The Houston officer involved was shown to be a perjurer in drug case search warrant requests and trial testimony. That led to two deaths during a botched no-knock drug … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Def’s guilty plea even waived IAC 4A claim
Defendant’s guilty plea waived his ineffectiveness claim on failure to investigate a possible Fourth Amendment claim. “Respondent argues that Petitioner’s ineffectiveness claim based on Defense Counsel’s failure to conduct a reasonable investigation into the search and seizure of her home … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: With California’s legalization of small amounts of marijuana, law enforcement can’t use federal criminal law as an excuse to search
Legalization of recreational marijuana in California makes possession of small quantities legal, despite federal criminal law leaving marijuana in schedule I, and thus denies law enforcement the ability to search for it. United States v. Talley, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Slightly speeding is still speeding and supports a stop
Defendant was slightly speeding and does not dispute it. The gravity of the traffic offense doesn’t matter on the reasonableness of the stop. United States v. Betances, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105632 (E.D.Mo. May 18, 2020):
Protocol: New York lawmakers want to outlaw geofence warrants as protests grow
Protocol: New York lawmakers want to outlaw geofence warrants as protests grow by Issie Lapowsky (“Geofence warrants are a relatively new but rapidly expanding phenomenon. Rather than issuing a warrant for data on a specific individual, these warrants seek information … Continue reading
Reason: Criminal Justice Divides the ‘Conservative’ Judiciary
Reason: Criminal Justice Divides the ‘Conservative’ Judiciary by Damon Root (“Pundits often speak of the judiciary in terms of liberal or conservative judges issuing liberal or conservative opinions. The reality is far more complicated.”)
Proposed Justice in Policing Act of 2020, some proposals on arrest and frisk, qualified immunity, use of force, and no-knock warrants
Proposed Justice in Policing Act of 2020 in the House of Representatives: some proposals on arrest and frisk, qualified immunity, use of force, and searches: In § 103, repeals case law on qualified immunity in revised § 1983 (pdf at … Continue reading
“America was neither founded, nor freed, by the well-behaved.”
— Semmes Luckett Jr. of Clarksdale, Mississippi [This was posted on July 4, 2010 & 2012]
Law.com/NYLJ: COVID-19 and the Constitution: How the Bill of Rights Is Being Tested by the Coronavirus
Law.com/NYLJ: COVID-19 and the Constitution: How the Bill of Rights Is Being Tested by the Coronavirus by John Curran, Jake Gardener and Jeffery Ding (“The coronavirus is set to test our Bill of Rights more broadly than any other event … Continue reading
FL1: Retaining lawfully obtained DNA in CODIS isn’t a separate search subject to 4A
“The retention of a lawfully obtained DNA record on CODIS for future use does not constitute a separate search or implicate the Fourth Amendment.” Porter v. State, 2020 Fla. App. LEXIS 7218 (Fla. 1st DCA May 26, 2020). Defendant was … Continue reading
AR: State const’l requirement of right to refuse consent on knock-and-talk reaffirmed; suppression hearing stipulation can’t be used at trial
The police violated a longstanding state constitutional prohibition of a knock-and-talk seeking consent to enter a home without a warning of a right to refuse. In addition, a factual stipulation for the suppression hearing couldn’t be used by the state … Continue reading
We’re back, somewhat
After three weeks of recovery, I’m going to get started on getting caught up. Three weeks behind is hundreds of cases I have to screen. It will be six weeks getting caught up, probably. So, basic cases that won’t be … Continue reading