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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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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. 
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Reason.com: In Warrantless Cellphone Search Case, It’s the Trump Administration vs. the 4th Amendment
Reason.com: In Warrantless Cellphone Search Case, It’s the Trump Administration vs. the 4th Amendment by Damon Root:
ABA Law Practice: Are Alexa and Her Friends Safe for Office Use?
Sharon D. Nelson & John W. Simek, Are Alexa and Her Friends Safe for Office Use?, 43 Law Practice No. 5, 26 (Sept.-Oct. 2017): The obvious question revolves around the security of these types of devices. Is Alexa safe to … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Discovery denied on software used to search computer for CP as a PC issue when it was a P2P case; not material to that search
Defendant sought all kinds of information about how BitTorrent Downpour software worked to search his computer, but he fails to show how it is material to the finding of probable cause on a P2P sharing case. Discovery is denied. United … Continue reading
CA9: Immigration removal appeal showed egregious 4A violation for stopping Latino because of his race where the stop wasn’t at the border
Defendant was stopped by the Coast Guard solely because he was Latino, and it wasn’t a border stop. The court finds it was an egregious violation of the Fourth Amendment, and defendant’s alienage is suppressed. Sanchez v. Sessions, 2017 U.S. … Continue reading
CA11: A decade old cocaine conviction can be a factor in RS for a probation search
Defendant’s decade old cocaine conviction could be a factor in reasonable suspicion for a probation search. United States v. Riley, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 16233 (11th Cir. Aug. 25, 2017). The district court’s finding that the officers did not use … Continue reading
GA: Knock-and-announce applies to a business search
In a search of a medical clinic with a search warrant, officers entered and fanned out through the premises with one officer presenting the search warrant to the receptionist. The knock-and-announce statute applies to any possible use of force, including … Continue reading
CA9: Failure to cite authority for overbreadth in motion to suppress was waiver of issue
There was probable cause to search defendant’s home for evidence of child sexual exploitation based on the statement of the victim and her mother. Defendant’ overbreadth argument in the district court fails for not citing authority that it was overbroad; … Continue reading
Ars Technica: Man in jail 2 years for refusing to decrypt drives. Will he ever get out?
Ars Technica: Man in jail 2 years for refusing to decrypt drives. Will he ever get out? by David Kravets:
CA8: No QI immunity for arrest for obstruction of man video recording arrest of wife from his doorway
Plaintiff awoke to hear a commotion in his front yard, and he saw officers with guns drawn on his handicapped wife. He stood in his doorway and questioned what they were doing and why, and he video recorded them. They … Continue reading
TN: Cell phone warrantless search led to SW for phone; it was all unreasonable, yet harmless from other overwhelming proof
In a homicide case with plenty of other proof of motive, defendants’ cell phones were illegally searched, and then the decision was made by the police to get a warrant. The search was unreasonable. “It was only after the confirmatory … Continue reading
We already know the Executive Branch doesn’t respect the Fourth Amendment, but …
A serial violator of the Fourth Amendment is called a “great American patriot” by a President who recently encouraged police to use excessive force. And the SCOTUS hates the exclusionary rule, and Congress won’t update any privacy laws. Who will … Continue reading
44 years ago today I got the bar results
Saturday, August 25th, 12:20 pm, sent by Western Union telegram to the City Desk of the Arkansas Gazette from Hot Springs arriving shortly afternoon. Telegram …. Faxes didn’t exist yet.
Getting caught up after a jury trial
VI: Report of gun pointed from a particular car is RS
A report that a gun had been pointed from a car was reasonable suspicion to stop the car. When three of the four doors of the car flung open on the stop, it was reasonable to order everyone to the … Continue reading
Reason: Federal Judge Rules Unlicensed Dogs Aren’t Protected By Fourth Amendment
Reason: Federal Judge Rules Unlicensed Dogs Aren’t Protected By Fourth Amendment by C.J. Ciaramella: Nikita Smith sued the Detroit police after they shot her three dogs on a pot raid. A judge ruled the dogs were “contraband.”
Federal “war on drugs” started “80 Years Ago Today: President Signs First Federal Anti-Marijuana Law”
NORML Blog: 80 Years Ago Today: President Signs First Federal Anti-Marijuana Law by Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director:
WaPo: Former Ariz. sheriff Joe Arpaio, who took extreme stance on immigration, is convicted of criminal contempt [including 4A violations, with opinion link]
WaPo: Former Ariz. sheriff Joe Arpaio, who took extreme stance on immigration, is convicted of criminal contempt by Matt Zapotosky. Opinion link below. Arpaio was also found to have violated the Fourth Amendment rights of detainees: Courthouse News Service: Judge … Continue reading
Overseizure? I’m sure the floormat wasn’t mentioned in the search warrant
Since I have one at my house … I used to have one at my office. I let a client have it, and he was arrested after a search of his house two weeks later.
IA declines to abandon automobile exception just because of availability of electronic warrants
Iowa declines to abandon the automobile exception just because technological advances make it possible to apply for telephone or email warrants from the scene of a search. Other states attempted that and reverted back to the automobile exception. State v. … Continue reading
The New Yorker: The Bootlegger, the Wiretap, and the Beginning of Privacy
The New Yorker: The Bootlegger, the Wiretap, and the Beginning of Privacy by Karen Abbott