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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)
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Section 1983 Blog -
"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
WSJ: Why Isn’t the Supreme Court in a Hurry to Challenge the NSA?
WSJ: Why Isn’t the Supreme Court in a Hurry to Challenge the NSA? by Meghan Foley:
Chicago Sun-Times: Police-related suits cost city more than $500 million since ’04
Chicago Sun-Times: Police-related suits cost city more than $500 million since ’04 by Andrew Schroedter:
Vox: Remember when legal marijuana was going to send crime skyrocketing?
Vox: Remember when legal marijuana was going to send crime skyrocketing? by German Lopez: Denver’s crime data shows a slight decrease in the past year: violent crime in January and February fell by 2.4 percent compared to the first two … Continue reading
The Hill: High court won’t take up NSA case
The Hill: High court won’t take up NSA case by Julian Hattem:
OH7: Defendant was pushed for consent, so it’s involuntary; officers’ impending lunch break not exigent circumstances
Defendant was a college student suspected of setting off a small homemade bomb/firework in a vacant lot. He was stopped leaving the scene, and detained. Nothing illegal was found on him or in his car. The officers wanted to search … Continue reading
OH8: Smell of MJ from a car was PC for a full search under the automobile exception
Officers were working an area in “response to numerous drug activity complaints” and saw an unattended white Lexus with the engine running. When they got out, there was a gray Lexus near it. Officers recognized both as having been involved … Continue reading
CA1: Driver’s connection to vehicle was tenuous; no standing
The vehicle in this case was stopped for a traffic offense, and Martin was driving and defendant was a passenger, but both, it turned out, gave false names, defendant using his brother’s. After they were released, the officer got more … Continue reading
WaPo: Volokh: Do travelers have a right to leave airport security screening areas without the TSA’s permission?
WaPo: Volokh: Do travelers have a right to leave airport security screening areas without the TSA’s permission? by Orin Kerr:
TechDirt: DOJ Flips Out That Evidence Gathered Via FISA Orders Might Be Made Available To Defendants
TechDirt: DOJ Flips Out That Evidence Gathered Via FISA Orders Might Be Made Available To Defendants by Mike Masnick:
CA8 considers different standards for “community caretaking” v. investigation of crime
A Kansas City Greyhound bus employee called police to say that a man fell asleep on a bench in the bus station (“a high crime area”) and a gun was hanging out of his pocket. The police response was a … Continue reading
CA10: Suppression as remedy for violation of Posse Comitatus Act not established, let alone clearly established
New Mexico courts did not violate clearly established federal law (under § 2254) in determining that there was no exclusionary remedy for an alleged violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. Gonzales v. Bravo, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 6236 (10th Cir. … Continue reading
NV: Officer’s citing the wrong statute in making stop doesn’t make stop invalid
“Deputy Wendy Jason, the investigating officer, testified that she stopped Cantsee because his cracked windshield violated NRS 484D.435. However, NRS 484D.435 does not prohibit operating a vehicle with a cracked windshield. Although the cracked windshield could violate another statute, the … Continue reading
NC: Stop and handcuffing for 16 minutes was entitled to qualified immunity without malice being shown
Plaintiff was stopped and handcuffed by the defendant officer under mistaken identity. After 16 minutes, he was released without an apology after his ID was called in. The officer gets immunity for his actions, because there was no showing he … Continue reading
WDBJ7: Parents and students say student allegedly caught with inappropriate picture of minor prompts cell phone sweep at Pulaski County [VA] schools
wdbj7.com: Parents and students say student allegedly caught with inappropriate picture of minor prompts cell phone sweep at Pulaski County [VA] schools by Orlando Salinas. The school board denies that there has been a wide sweep of cell phones.
Aljazeera America: Field of drones
Aljazeera America: Field of drones:
Politico: Feds: No DNA tests for clearance
Politico: Feds: No DNA tests for clearance by Josh Gerstein: Genetic testing for background checks is ‘not on the table at all,’ a spokesman says.
New Law Review Article: Dogs, Drones, and Defendants: The Fourth Amendment in the Digital Age
Mason C. Clutter, Dogs, Drones, and Defendants: The Fourth Amendment in the Digital Age, 21 Geo. Mason L. Rev. (forthcoming Spring 2014). Abstract:
OH10: GPS installation two years before Jones violated Fourth Amendment, and no good faith
The state appealed the grant of a motion to suppress installation of a GPS device two years before Jones. It’s a lengthy opinion dealing with all aspects of GPS and affirming suppression: installation with reasonable suspicion, installation under the automobile … Continue reading
CA6: The fact a deputy sheriff involved in executing a SW was later convicted of an unrelated crime doesn’t state a claim
In a § 1983 case, the fact a later convicted deputy sheriff participated in the search of plaintiff’s house doesn’t state a claim against the municipality for custom. Key v. Shelby County, 551 Fed. Appx. 262 (6th Cir. 2014).* Defendant’s … Continue reading
ND: A nighttime drug sale alone does not justify a nighttime search warrant
A nighttime search requires a separate showing of probable cause for that, and, here, a few sales of drugs at night isn’t sufficient. State v. Zeller, 2014 ND 65, 2014 N.D. LEXIS 63 (April 3, 2014):