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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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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) -
“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: Consent
DE: Probation searches of individuals include their residence
The statute on individuals subject to probation searches includes their residences. State v. Crooks, 2024 Del. Super. LEXIS 830 (Dec. 31, 2024). There were exigent circumstances based on the reported gunshot, potential threat to officers and public safety, and the … Continue reading →
TX: Judge sanctioned for blocking DNA testing of class A misdemeanants without authority
A former judge of the Harris County Criminal Court was sanctioned by the Texas Supreme Court for issuing orders of protection barring the Sheriff from taking DNA samples from class A misdemeanants because the judge believed the statute requiring it … Continue reading →
E.D.Mo.: No claim where no damages shown for alleged unreasonable dog sniff; nothing was found, detention was otherwise reasonable
Officers were surveilling a van that they believed might have a connection to an unsolved homicide. They observed what appeared to be hand-to-hand drug transactions, and the van’s LPN was expired. They approached. There were others around the van, and … Continue reading →
WI: Not coercive to tell def officer will get SW if he doesn’t consent when there is PC
It’s not coercive to tell a suspect that the officer will get a search warrant if he doesn’t consent when there’s probable cause. State v. Gore, 2025 Wisc. App. LEXIS 7 (Jan. 7, 2025). There was probable cause for defendant’s … Continue reading →
W.D.Pa.: Hidden bodycams used to record conversations in unmarked police cars between officers violated REP
Hidden bodycams used to record conversations in unmarked police cars between officers violated a reasonable expectation of privacy and likely Title III. Baker v. City of Pittsburgh, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2157 (W.D. Pa. Jan. 6, 2025). The search of … Continue reading →
E.D.Mo.: Even though threatened with obstruction if he didn’t, defendant consented to seizure of cell phone
The officer had probable cause to believe defendant took a video of a young girl in his house in the bathtub. Defendant was persuaded to turn over the phone and it was consensual. He was told that he might be … Continue reading →
E.D.Ky.: § 1983 complaint against his state case is barred by Younger
Plaintiff’s § 1983 complaint against his state case is barred by Younger. Cuffee v. Cabuay, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 233153 (E.D. Ky. Dec. 27, 2024).* Defendant has no standing to challenge the search of another person’s cell phone. United States … Continue reading →
CA5: Ptf’s excessive force claim arising from a traffic stop expands Bivens
Plaintiff’s shooting during a traffic stop gone bad is an expansion of Bivens and is rejected. Hernandez v. Causey, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 32527 (5th Cir. Dec. 23, 2024). Defendant had standing to contest the search of his room at … Continue reading →
IA: No REP in ER room from police entry for observations and questions
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the ER room he was being treated in when the officer entered, observed him clearly intoxicated, and then elicited admissions from him. (The court considered both trespass and reasonable expectation of privacy … Continue reading →
E.D.Mo.: Squatter owner had knowledge of still had no standing
Defendant was essentially a squatter who was wrongfully on the premises and had no standing. The owner lived on the second floor, and he squatted on the first floor for months. The building was condemned. His claim the owner’s tolerating … Continue reading →
E.D.Mo.: Evidence of the search comes in because it “completes the story”
“‘Evidence of other wrongful conduct is considered intrinsic when it is offered for the purpose of providing the context in which the charged crime occurred.’ … ‘Intrinsic evidence may help to fill the gaps in the jury’s understanding of the … Continue reading →
D.Mass.: Gun suppressed in FIPF case still not excludable in violation of supervised release
Defendant was an alleged felon in possession and was charged with a new federal crime and a violation of his supervised release. He was sentenced to 22 months on the violation. The gun was suppressed in the new gun case … Continue reading →
N.Y.Co.: Shareholders cannot bring a 4A claim on behalf of a corporation that isn’t a party
Shareholders cannot bring a Fourth Amendment claim on behalf of a corporation that isn’t a party. Elfand v. Adams, 2024 NY Slip Op 24289, 2024 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 19021 (N.Y. Co. Nov. 18, 2024). The CI’s information led to a … Continue reading →
D.Ariz.: SW not needed to turn over jail calls to DA
No search warrant is needed for the jail to turn over plaintiff’s jail telephone calls to the DA’s office. Wallace v. Maricopa Cty. Prosecutor’s Office, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209545 (D. Ariz. Oct. 24, 2024).* When an officer invokes the … Continue reading →
W.D.N.Y.: The fact the issuing magistrate read fast didn’t mean he wasn’t neutral and detached
The fact the issuing magistrate had to read 65 pages in 21 minutes doesn’t mean he wasn’t neutral and detached. “The Court is not persuaded by Defendant’s assessment of Judge Morrison’s reading speed, which relies wholly on speculation.” United States … Continue reading →
D.Alaska: Arriving passenger stopped in airport consented to search
“Here, in contrast, Ms. Spadaro was an arriving passenger; her airplane ticket was a nonissue. There is no indication that law enforcement took her identification from her. And, despite her several requests to use the restroom, the audio recording supports … Continue reading →
OR: Def’s wife implicitly consented to the search by her actions
The record supported the finding that defendant’s wife consented to the search. Her behavior, including standing in the open doorway and not protesting the officer’s entry, indicated implied consent. In addition, the court found that he did not expressly deny … Continue reading →
FL5: Weaving justified welfare check stop
Defendant’s obvious weaving justified at least a welfare check stop that was reasonable. State v. Sheldon, 2024 Fla. App. LEXIS 7892 (Fla. 5th DCA Oct. 8, 2024). 2254 petitioner doesn’t show that he didn’t get a full and fair opportunity … Continue reading →
E.D.Okla.: Housing authority’s warning of a pest inspection permitted under lease agreement amounts to no REP
The housing authority told plaintiff they were coming in for a pest inspection and did under the conditions of the lease. That was reasonable, and there was no violation of a reasonable expectation of privacy when the inspectors saw drugs. … Continue reading →
AL: Officer being unable to differentiate smell of MJ and hemp doesn’t negate PC
“Because probable cause does not require certainty, but only probability, we agree with the trial court that the fact that officers cannot distinguish between hemp and marijuana based on odor alone ‘does not void probable cause.’ … Other jurisdictions have … Continue reading →