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- RI: Challenge to one sentence of 8-page cell phone records SW fails; totality has to be considered
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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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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
Motherboard: The Most Extreme State Drone Bill Yet Will Criminalize Aerial Photography
Motherboard: The Most Extreme State Drone Bill Yet Will Criminalize Aerial Photography by Jason Koebler: Louisiana’s Senate just passed two bills that would criminalize drone photography, with violators potentially facing jail time. Does anybody else sense a First Amendment problem … Continue reading
WaPo: Another secret FISA opinion disclosed, and a question for Stewart Baker
WaPo: Volokh Another secret FISA opinion disclosed, and a question for Stewart Baker by Randy Barnett: If this is constitutional, why can’t the NSA also collect the credit card, bank, and medical records of all Americans?
WaPo: Editorial: Supreme Court should begin laying out privacy protections for smartphones
WaPo: Editorial: Supreme Court should begin laying out privacy protections for smartphones: Americans should take steps to protect their digital privacy. But keeping sensitive information on these devices is increasingly a requirement of normal life. Citizens still have a right … Continue reading
Blacklisted.com: Police Mag: Fourth Amendment Is a “Hassle”
Blacklisted.com: Police Mag: Fourth Amendment Is a “Hassle” You have to reign in your natural hunter’s instinct and take the time to get a search warrant. There’s the affidavit of probable cause to compose, the warrant form to fill out, … Continue reading
New Law Review Article: The Forgotten Right to Be Secure
The Forgotten Right to Be Secure, Luke M. Milligan, 65 Hastings L.J. 713 (2014). Abstract: Surveillance methods in the United States operate under the general principle that “use precedes regulation.” While the general principle of “use precedes regulation” is widely … Continue reading
LATimes: Scalia set to play key role in Supreme Court smartphone case
LATimes: Scalia set to play key role in Supreme Court smartphone case by David G. Savage: WASHINGTON — Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court’s new champion of the 4th Amendment, is likely to play a crucial role Tuesday when the … Continue reading
NYT Editorial: Smartphones and the 4th Amendment [commenting on Wurie and Riley]
NYT Editorial: Smartphones and the 4th Amendment: More than 90 percent of American adults own a mobile phone, and more than half of the devices are smartphones. But “smartphone” is a misnomer. They are personal computers that happen to include … Continue reading
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: The latest in Peoria’s Twitter parody case
‘The Watch’ Blog: The latest in Peoria’s Twitter parody case by Radley Balko: “Why did local judges and police sign and execute warrants for a crime that doesn’t exist?” Yesterday, Illinois State’s Attorney Jerry Brady announced that he would not … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: The contents of a notebook are not in “plain view” in a consent drug search
When defendant consented to a search for drugs, packaged money fell within plain view, but a spiral notebook does not. United States v. Jaimez, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 187277 (N.D. Ga. May 21, 2013):
WaPo: Lawsuit: Audio depicts another police conspiracy to plant drug evidence
WaPo: Lawsuit: Audio depicts another police conspiracy to plant drug evidence by Radley Balko: From a lawsuit filed in a California federal court
NYT: Beleaguered Albuquerque Department Reports Another Fatal Shooting by Police
NYT: Beleaguered Albuquerque Department Reports Another Fatal Shooting by Police by Trip Jennings and Fernanda Santos: An Albuquerque police officer fatally shot a suspected car thief on Monday during a foot chase in which, officials said, the suspect pointed a … Continue reading
BLT: DOJ Challenges Denial of Search Warrant for Email Account
BLT: DOJ Challenges Denial of Search Warrant for Email Account by Lee Tillman: Federal prosecutors are pushing back against U.S. District Magistrate Judge John Facciola, who says the government has repeatedly filed search warrant applications for electronic information that run … Continue reading
Reflections on Navarette: What guards against fictitious police reports? Nothing, really
So, on reflection, what does Navarette do to guard against the fictitious 911 call that somebody was driving erratically to justify a stop? Absolutely nothing. In most all of the prior cases, the officer follows for a little while and … Continue reading
SCOTUS decides Navarette: RS from a 911 call suggesting drunk driving
Navarette v. California 12–9490 (April 22, 2014). Syllabus: A California Highway Patrol officer stopped the pickup truck occupied by petitioners because it matched the description of a vehicle that a 911 caller had recently reported as having run her off … Continue reading
Des Moines Register: Two-thirds frown on personal, commercial drone use
Des Moines Register: Two-thirds frown on personal, commercial drone use “Nearly two-thirds of people asked in a new Pew Research Center survey say personal and commercial drones have no place in U.S. airspace.”
AOL & LAT: LAPD Apologizes For Tampering With Patrol Car Recording Equipment
LATimes: LAPD apologizes to commission for not alerting it to tampering: “Top Los Angeles police officials Tuesday publicly apologized to their civilian bosses for not promptly alerting them that officers had tampered with recording equipment in patrol cars to avoid … Continue reading
OH2: Warrant on passenger led to stop being reasonably extended; officer was outnumbered
During a traffic stop, the officer learned there was an outstanding warrant on a passenger who had to be arrested. The officer asked if there was anything in the car he needed to be aware of, and they said no. … Continue reading
D.Mass.: “Mild ruse” to gain entry by consent to serve an immigration warrant did not violate the Fourth Amendment
A “mild ruse” to gain entry by consent to serve an immigration warrant did not violate the Fourth Amendment. United States v. De La Cruz, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 54126 (D. Mass. April 18, 2014):
LA Times: How technology [LPN scanners] helped crack the Kansas City highway shooter case
LA Times: How technology helped crack the Kansas City highway shooter case by Matt Pearce. Police license plate scanners helped find the person alleged to be the highway shooter:
When Did This Become This?
Credit: http://pumabydesign001.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/police-state-when-did-this-become-this.jpg See also Radley Balko, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces (2013). Anybody out there remember “Adam-12” (1968-75) produced by Jack Webb of “Dragnet” (1951-59) fame? I’m dating myself, and likely my view of … Continue reading