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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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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
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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. 
Category Archives: Uncategorized
S.D.Cal.: Def’s substantial search claim was determinative of his conviction and bail would be granted pending sentencing
Defendant’s search issue is arguable and substantial and a question of first impression in this circuit, and the search claim is determinative of the conviction. This counsel’s in favor of granting release pending sentencing. United States v. Wilson, 2018 U.S. … Continue reading
When a website goes down …
This website goes down every once and a while when there is server maintenance, wherever the server is. It’s frustrating to have it down for a half day, or worse a day or longer. A programming update had it down … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Suppressed evidence [a confession] leads to grant of pretrial release
The question of the effect of suppressed evidence on the question of bail is considered at length in United States v. Taylor, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 205 (D.D.C. Jan. 2, 2018), albeit here in a suppressed confession. The court concludes … Continue reading
California, Florida, Illinois, and Texas versions of Search and Seizure
Want to write a version of Search and Seizure for your state? Have two years to spend on advancing your own knowledge of the subject? Lexis plans state specific versions of Search and Seizure for these states. Email the author … Continue reading
NYTimes: The Failed War on Drugs
NYTimes: The Failed War on Drugs by George P. Shultz and Pedro Aspe:
Book on sale through midnight PT Jan. 2
Enter NEW2018 at checkout or Call 800.223.1940
Mother Jones: Pot Legalization Is Transforming California’s Criminal Justice Landscape. Here’s How.
Mother Jones: Pot Legalization Is Transforming California’s Criminal Justice Landscape. Here’s How. by Brandon E. Patterson: “Smoking pot while black” will probably still be a thing, though.
DE: SW affidavit based entirely on hearsay is not unconstitutional for that reason alone
A search warrant affidavit based entirely on hearsay is not unconstitutional for that reason alone. The hearsay has to be credible and the collective knowledge doctrine is one way to do so. If probable cause is shown on the totality, … Continue reading
RealClearPolitics: How to Balance Civil Liberties With Safety
RealClearPolitics: How to Balance Civil Liberties With Safety by Lisa Rosenberg & Jesse Blumenthal
New York Magazine: Are Trump’s Transition Team Lawyers Attempting to Discredit Mueller?
New York Magazine: Are Trump’s Transition Team Lawyers Attempting to Discredit Mueller? by Chas Danner Well, duh! “To ask the question is to answer it.” Heald v. Rice, 104 U.S. 737, 755 (1892); In Re Debs, 158 U.S. 564, 581 … Continue reading
Bill of Rights Day — 226 years ago today the Bill of Rights was ratified
S.D.Cal.: Govt doesn’t get to reopen to address an issue it was told about at hearing and should have seen coming
The government filed a motion to reopen the suppression hearing after the court raised whether there was collective knowledge and the government didn’t respond. It should have seen this coming. “The Court cannot find good cause to reopen the evidentiary … Continue reading
Lexis’s U.S. Dist. database will hit 200,000 in 2017 today
… for the first time. They’re clearly trying to include more stuff from the U.S. District Courts. Some of it is meaningless, I know and I see, but there is more substance being posted. This is about 4 times the … Continue reading
WaPo: This week in the Fourth Amendment: Cops, drugs and the Castle Doctrine
WaPo: This week in the Fourth Amendment: Cops, drugs and the Castle Doctrine by Radley Balko:
SCOTUSblog: Argument preview: The justices return to cellphones and the Fourth Amendment
SCOTUSblog: Argument preview: The justices return to cellphones and the Fourth Amendment by Amy Howe: [D]oes the third-party doctrine apply the same way to cellphones, which only became commercially available a few years after the court’s decisions in Miller and Smith?… That question … Continue reading
FourthAmendment.com named to ABA Journal’s Web 100 top law blogs for third year
ABAJ: Welcome to the 2017 ABA Journal Web 100 by Andrew Lefkowitz, Sarah Mui and Stephen Rynkiewicz. For the last ten years, it was called the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100. The name was changed this year to include podcasts, twitter … Continue reading
LawFare: The Fourth Amendment Doesn’t Recognize a General “Right to be Secure”
LawFare: The Fourth Amendment Doesn’t Recognize a General “Right to be Secure” by Orin Kerr:
D.N.M.: Def was detained at the border and inside a building, but he wasn’t “in custody” for Miranda purposes
Defendant was detained at the border and inside a building, but he wasn’t “in custody” for Miranda purposes. “Bustillos-Ramirez’s time seated at the table presents a situation similar to those cited in which the courts found that the defendant was … Continue reading
CA11: Failure to object to R&R was waiver of search issue
Defendant didn’t object to the magistrate’s R&R. The stop was found valid in the district court for having a tag light out and then consenting to a search. United States v. Jackson, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 23048 (11th Cir. Nov. … Continue reading
Reason: The Senate Intelligence Committee Really Wants to Secretly Snoop on Americans
Reason: The Senate Intelligence Committee Really Wants to Secretly Snoop on Americans by Scott Shackford: Every attempt to restrain and reform unwarranted domestic surveillance batted away.