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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
LATimes: Police arrests are plummeting across California, fueling alarm and questions
LATimes: Police arrests are plummeting across California, fueling alarm and questions by James Queally, Kate Mather and Cindy Chang:
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press: Microsoft advances on challenge to search warrant gag orders
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press: Microsoft advances on challenge to search warrant gag orders by Selina MacLaren :
Simple Justice blog: Kopf’s Top Ten Observations About Criminal Defense Lawyers
Kopf’s Top Ten Observations About Criminal Defense Lawyers by Richard G. Kopf, Senior United States District Judge (Nebraska): 10. Criminal defense lawyers are at great risk of becoming drunken bastards—the stress is beyond description. 9. Being a good criminal defense … Continue reading
WaPo: The House just voted to wipe out the FCC’s landmark Internet privacy protections | Money more important than privacy
WaPo: The House just voted to wipe out the FCC’s landmark Internet privacy protections by Brian Fung: House Republicans voted overwhelmingly Tuesday, by a margin of 215-205, to repeal a set of landmark privacy protections for Web users, issuing a … Continue reading
KS: State is bound by prior suppression ruling when it dismisses and refiles
The evidence was suppressed, and the state appealed and it was affirmed. They dismissed and refiled later. The prior ruling was “law of the case,” and the state is bound by it. State v. Parry, 2017 Kan. LEXIS 116 (March … Continue reading
SCOTUS: Manuel v. City of Joliet: Pretrial detention is governed by the Fourth Amendment, especially when the probable cause for detention is on fabricated evidence
Manuel v. City of Joliet, 2017 U.S. LEXIS 2021 (U.S. March 21, 2017). SCOTUSBlog: Opinion analysis: The Fourth Amendment governs unlawful pretrial detention claims even after legal process begins; everything else is remanded by Rory Little Syllabus:
S.D.Ala.: RS supported stop of defs’ boat in international waters; scuttling a sinking ship after full investigation not spoliation of evidence
The government showed reasonable suspicion to believe that defendants’ ship was engaged in drug smuggling when it was seen again off the Colombian coast heading to the U.S. along a known smuggling route. The USCG elected to scuttle the boat … Continue reading
CA10: Habeas appellant had full and fair opportunity to litigate in state court, and evidence supported verdict
Under Stone v. Powell, defendant had a full and fair opportunity to litigate that he was the right person arrested even though he didn’t match the description of the person wanted. The finding of guilty survives AEDPA review under Jackson … Continue reading
LA4: Calling police to a dead body in your home and then letting them in is consent
“Defendant called the police to report that he found his friend dead in the residence. The call was dispatched as an unclassified death. Det. Gex was the only responding police officer who testified. He arrived at the scene between 8:00 … Continue reading
New Book: H-Net, The Fourth Amendment in an Age of Surveillance
New Book: H-Net, The Fourth Amendment in an Age of Surveillance by David C. Gray Publisher: Cambridge University Press Publication Date: 4/30/2017
D.Ariz.: SI valid for open container violation
Defendant was stopped by a tribal officer for speeding. He smelled of alcohol, and there were apparent minors in the car. The officer had defendant get out of the car and two open containers were seen. A search incident to … Continue reading
D.Alaska: Handcuffing def to take to FBI office for interview an arrest, no matter what the policy says
Handcuffing the defendant and transporting him to the FBI office was an arrest under Kaupp v. Texas. The fact that’s policy is irrelevant. “The fact that it is FBI policy to handcuff defendants being transported in FBI vehicles is irrelevant. … Continue reading
Today is the 14th anniversary of this blog and the 256th of the argument in Paxton’s case, the Writs of Assistance case
See prior posts starting here: February 24, 1761, Old State House in Boston, second floor. The argument here. About 20,000 posts, which is 3.9 per day. I can’t give the real number because this is the third platform, and some … Continue reading
CA5: No QI immunity for arrest for videotaping police station; 1A claim was not well-settled at time of arrest, but it is now
Plaintiff was arrested in September 2015 for videotaping a Ft. Worth police station from across the street. They first asked him for identification which he refused to provide. Then they arrested him and left him in a hot police car … Continue reading
Treatise is 25% off through 2/17 midnight PT
Treatise is 25% off through 2/17 midnight PT here.
Alternet (via Salon): One nation, under cops: 3 reasons to believe America could become a police state under Trump
Alternet (via Salon): One nation, under cops: 3 reasons to believe America could become a police state under Trump by Alexandra Rosenmann A civil rights attorney weighs in on “Big Picture” with Thom Hartmann
NACDL gets grant to fund NACDL Fourth Amendment Center
Letter from NACDL Past President Gerry Morris of Austin, Texas today, in part: I am pleased to report that the Foundation for Criminal Justice has received a significant new grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The … Continue reading
SSRN: Government Lawyers in the Trump Administration
SSRN: Government Lawyers in the Trump Administration by W. Bradley Wendel of Cornell University School of Law, posted today. Abstract: The words and actions of candidate, President-Elect, and now President Donald Trump indicate that this Administration will aggressively seek to … Continue reading
MN: 5A not violated by order to use fingerprint to open cell phone for search
Defendant’s cell phone was properly seized, and the order compelling him to provide his fingerprint to unlock the phone didn’t violate his privilege against self-incrimination because there was nothing testimonial about it. State v. Diamond, 2017 Minn. App. LEXIS 9 … Continue reading
LA4: Search incident for curfew violation arrest was reasonable
An arrest of a juvenile for even the minor offense of a curfew violation justified a search incident when the juvenile was placed in the police car. State ex rel. R.M., 2017 La. App. LEXIS 68 (La.App. 4 Cir. Jan. … Continue reading