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- MA: When a likely Franks violation comes out at trial, def gets to reopen the suppression issue
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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
Atlantic: End Needless Interactions With Police Officers During Traffic Stops
Atlantic: End Needless Interactions With Police Officers During Traffic Stops by Conor Friedersdorf: A broken taillight does not require armed agents of the state to approach a motorist’s window.
LA Daily News: Privacy isn’t being protected by Congress
LA Daily News: Privacy isn’t being protected by Congress:
Treatise 10% off through 7/6 midnight
Bookstore Not the 20-25% of before, but something.
OC Breeze: Celebrating the Bill of Rights: Fourth Amendment
OC Breeze: Celebrating the Bill of Rights: Fourth Amendment Celebrating the Bill of Rights, your defense and bulwark against the encroachment by government into your personal liberty. (The Bill of Rights, incidentally, was ratified December 15, 1791: 15 years, 4 … Continue reading
The Intercept: Secret Rules Make It Pretty Easy for the FBI to Spy on Journalists
The Intercept: Secret Rules Make It Pretty Easy for the FBI to Spy on Journalists by Cora Currier: SECRET FBI RULES allow agents to obtain journalists’ phone records with approval from two internal officials — far less oversight than under … Continue reading
Outside the Beltway: The Fourth Amendment Was Meant To Protect All Of Us, Not Just The “Innocent”
Outside the Beltway: The Fourth Amendment Was Meant To Protect All Of Us, Not Just The “Innocent” by Doug Mataconis: . . . Right off the bat, I must note with all due respect that the assertion that the protections … Continue reading
Cal.4th: sex offense probation condition that def submit to computer searches was reasonable
Defendant’s sex offense probation condition that he submit to computer searches was reasonably related to the offense. In re George F., 2016 Cal. App. LEXIS 518 (4th Dist. June 28, 2016):
NYTimes: Mark Zuckerberg Covers His Laptop Camera. You Should Consider It, Too.
NYTimes: Mark Zuckerberg Covers His Laptop Camera. You Should Consider It, Too. by Katie Rogers:
Boston Globe: The FDA is stockpiling military weapons — and it’s not alone
Boston Globe: The FDA is stockpiling military weapons — and it’s not alone by Jeff Jacoby:
D.P.R.: Criminal 4A violation proved by LEO being lookout on duty for robbery of recent ATF arrestee’s home
Defendant was a Puerto Rico police officer on a task force with the ATF. He worked the 4 pm to midnight shift, and he was involved as a police lookout to enable a condominium robbery to occur. He was convicted … Continue reading
Treatise 25% off through midnight
Go here. For what it’s worth, my local USAO bought three copies when they were allowed to buy books again.
WaPo: ‘The Volokh Conspiracy’ Blog: Short Circuit: A roundup of recent federal court decisions
WaPo: ‘The Volokh Conspiracy’ Blog: Short Circuit: A roundup of recent federal court decisions by Eugene Volokh: Is ‘the rule of law’ just an empty phrase trotted out when convenient? Hardly, argues Evan Bernick of the Center for Judicial Engagement, … Continue reading
NACDL: Symposium Report: The Fourth Amendment in the Digital Age
NACDL: Symposium Report: The Fourth Amendment in the Digital Age: Washington, DC (June 8, 2016) — The Fourth Amendment has entered the digital age. New surveillance technologies and programs — from GPS tracking devices to automated license plate readers to … Continue reading
NYTimes: Trump Could Threaten U.S. Rule of Law, Scholars Say
NYTimes: Trump Could Threaten U.S. Rule of Law, Scholars Say by Adam Liptak: WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump’s blustery attacks on the press, complaints about the judicial system and bold claims of presidential power collectively sketch out a constitutional worldview … Continue reading
TN: Fact dashcam didn’t catch all of def’s bad driving didn’t help case
Defendant’s wandering all over the road and even off the pavement was reasonable suspicion for a stop. The fact the dashcam only caught the second occurrence was of no avail to the defendant. State v. Moore, 2016 Tenn. Crim. App. … Continue reading
Book 25% off and free shipping next 56 hours
Until Midnight Eastern, May 26th. Call 937.247.8271 or email niki.lee@lexisnexis.com to receive 25% off + FREE shipping on orders over $350.
D.S.D.: A pre-Rodriguez delay didn’t warrant suppression despite the lack of reasonable suspicion
Defendant was stopped in an Eighth Circuit state governed by the former de minimus rule three months prior to Rodriguez, and it’s already been held that the old rule applies until that date. The district court finds the officer’s assertions … Continue reading
TX2: Reasonable mistake of fact, corroborated by trial court, doesn’t warrant suppression
The officer’s mistake of fact here was that one of defendant’s headlights was not working properly, and the trial court looked at the video of the stop several times. It may have been that it was working partially, but the … Continue reading
I’m behind because of a jury trial this week
Rolling Stone: Why America Can’t Quit the Drug War
Rolling Stone: Why America Can’t Quit the Drug War by Tim Dickinson: After 45 years, more than $1 trillion wasted, and the creation of the world’s largest prison system, America still lacks the political will to change its failed drug … Continue reading