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- 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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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General (many free):
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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)
ACLU on privacy
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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
Fortune: Harvard Law Just Released 6.5 Million Court Decisions Online
Fortune: Harvard Law Just Released 6.5 Million Court Decisions Online by Jeff John Roberts: In a significant milestone for public access to the law, the Library Innovation Lab at Harvard Law School on Monday published more than 40 million pages … Continue reading
NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board: Right to Know Act
NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board: Right to Know Act: Right to Know Act overview The Right to Know Act, in effect as of October 19, 2018, is made up of two components. The first outlines New York City Police Department … Continue reading
CA5: Unconditional guilty plea waives 4A claims
Even after Class v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 798 (2018), an unconditional guilty plea waives search and seizure claims. “So under Class, Torres may not raise a Fourth Amendment challenge on appeal, given his voluntary unconditional guilty plea. See … Continue reading
Off Topic: MA: Crime lab drug analyist’s misconduct coupled with state’s failure to disclose leads to dismissal of more cases
In the case involving the drug lab chemist’s theft of drugs and false reports, the Massachusetts SJC orders dismissal of other cases not already dismissed by the state for the combined effect of her actions and the state’s failure to … Continue reading
Website been down 44 hours because of server failure in Chicago server farm
Or so they say. It took a long time to recreate because of the 20,000+ posts that were there. And, the posts from October 5-8 were lost in the crash. I guess I’ll have redo those. This will stay at … 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.
Above the Law: Colonists Had More Protections From Unreasonable Government Searches Than We Do Now
Above the Law: Colonists Had More Protections From Unreasonable Government Searches Than We Do Now by Tyler Broker Blame the modern drug war and its erosion of Fourth Amendment guarantees.
Project on Government Oversight: A Day Without the Fourth Amendment
Project on Government Oversight: A Day Without the Fourth Amendment by Jake Laperruque: Accompany our hero on his journey through a fictional world without the Fourth Amendment.
AZ: The drug courier profile has its place in supporting RS, but it doesn’t have any place at trial
Drug courier profile evidence has its place (“Drug-courier profile evidence suggests that a defendant possesses one or more behavioral characteristics typically displayed by persons trafficking in illegal drugs. See State v. Haskie, 242 Ariz. 582, 585 ¶ 14, 399 P.3d … Continue reading
CA10: Search of car was inevitable by later inventory (completely overlooking automobile exception)
Defendant was stopped after robbing a Dollar General store of cigarettes. When confronted in the parking lot, he pulled a gun on the employees. Albuquerque PD found the car, surrounded it, and got him out. The car was searched and … Continue reading
PA grants review on whether executed SWs are public records under common law right of access
In re 2014 Allegheny County Investigating Grand Jury, 2018 Pa. LEXIS 4488 (Aug. 29, 2018):
E.D.Va.: When the stop is based on RS of speeding, the unmarked car’s speedometer doesn’t have to be “calibrated”; when there are two bases for stop, attacking one isn’t good enough
Defendant argues that his stop wasn’t justified because the police officer paced him with the uncalibrated speedometer on his unmarked car. The question, though, is reasonable suspicion, and aside from speeding there was a window tinting violation. So, the stop … Continue reading
CA11: Use of a “sniffer” to locate CP on a computer not mentioned in the SW not unreasonable search
Use of a sniffer device to search defendant’s computers at Emory University was not unreasonable just because the search warrant didn’t mention using it. United States v. Sullivan, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 23315 (11th Cir. Aug. 21, 2018).* Defendant was … Continue reading
OH6: Traffic stop led to finding outstanding warrants and led to valid search of car, without even trying to tell us how
Defendant was lawfully stopped for a lane violation. Running his DL led to finding outstanding warrants. “Having ascertained appellant’s identity and outstanding felony warrants, a lawful search led to the discovery of appellant’s unlawful drugs and firearm.” [What was the … Continue reading
D.P.R.: The fact the police statements weren’t the same doesn’t mean there’s a Franks violation or no PC
The officer’s statement wasn’t inconsistent with the reports of others and didn’t support a Franks claim. It’s entirely possible that the reports of others were all true and merely reported different observations than the officers. Therefore, no Franks violation. United … Continue reading
CA3: FBI doesn’t need permission from the states under 10A to get a SW in a bank robbery
“Johnson argues that ‘if a search warrant was required then the 10th Amendment requires the Department of Justice to obtain subject matter jurisdiction because the administration of criminal justice under our federal system has rested with the States.’ Pro Se … Continue reading
Relevance of a Jesus Malverde statute
Not a Fourth Amendment case, but a relevance issue in drug cases: Was there prejudice from testimony about a Jesus Malverde statute? United States v. Valencia, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 21659 (8th Cir. Aug. 6, 2018)*:
OH2: Ptf’s claims decided in criminal case were res judicata to civil case over same search
Res judicata barred plaintiff’s claims against the county for illegal search already decided against him in the criminal case. Cooper v. Montgomery County Sheriff, 2018-Ohio-2965, 2018 Ohio App. LEXIS 3208 (2d Dist. July 27, 2018). “Based on the totality of … Continue reading
FL4: Parkland school shooting videos obtained by SW subject to state FOIA
After the Parkland FL school shooting, police got a search warrant for all the school video. The news media then made a public records request for it all, which the court found reasonable. “The evidence presented by the Media establishes … Continue reading
CA11: Newly discovered evidence that officer committed perjury years after obtaining def’s SW wasn’t sufficient for successor habeas
Newly discovered evidence that the police officer involved in obtaining the search warrant for petitioner had committed perjury in some other proceeding years later wasn’t sufficient to show actual innocence for successor habeas. In re Taylor, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading