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- Philadelphia Inquirer: Two Philadelphia police officers stopped hundreds of Black men on the street. Lawyers say the stops were illegal and racially biased.
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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: Qualified immunity
CA11: No exigency present on a domestic call to justify warrantless entry into home
No reasonable officer could conclude on these facts that there was exigency for a warrantless entry. There was no evidence that actual violence was occurring or threatened. Therefore, qualified immunity was denied. Walters v. Freeman, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 13540 … Continue reading
CA11: Tasering armed man out of a tree where he broke his back entitled to QI
Plaintiff was drunk in a tree with a gun after an altercation at a party. The police came and he refused to some down. He was Tasered twice, the second time falling headfirst eight feet and becoming a paraplegic. The … Continue reading
D.Kan.: RS on totality here was weak and motion to suppress granted
“Although a close call, the Court concludes that the trooper did not have reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot and had no right to detain Medina for further investigation. Though reasonable suspicion is not meant to be an onerous … Continue reading
CA5: When qualified immunity is the issue, whether the 4A was violated isn’t even the “ultimate question”
Police received a 911 call that plaintiff’s son was a schizophrenic threatening death or certain injury. They came to her house, and she denied that he was there, but pleaded for help for him because he refused to take his … Continue reading
Three § 1983 cases: CA10: No PC for search, no good faith for officer relying on another’s conclusion of PC
Plaintiff was stopped for speeding and “perceived inconsistencies” in her story led to a request to search, her refusal, and then her two hour detention, drug dog and car search. No drugs were found. There was no probable cause for … Continue reading
TX4: No reasonable expectation of privacy in public official’s emails
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public office holder’s official email accounts under the state public records act. Quon is distinguished, and the email policies show no expectation of privacy. Adkisson v. Abbott, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA6: Malicious prosecution claim fails where no false testimony before GJ
Plaintiff’s grand jury indictment was sufficient probable cause to defeat a malicious prosecution claim. Plaintiff cannot show that the officer testified falsely or with reckless disregard for the truth before the grand jury. Robertson v. Lucas, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
SCOTUS: Deadly force to stop this high-speed car chase was reasonable as a matter of law; alternatively, officers get qualified immunity
Deadly force used to stop this high-speed car chase was reasonable as a matter of law. The number of shots is not determinative (12) as long as the risk is apparent. Alternatively, the officers get qualified immunity because the law … Continue reading
CA11: Warrantless entry to arrest on reasonable suspicion violates clearly established law; officers denied qualified immunity
A warrantless entry to arrest on reasonable suspicion violates clearly established law of the presumption of invalidity of a warrantless entry, and the officers are denied qualified immunity. Morris v. Town of Lexington Ala., 748 F.3d 1316 (11th Cir. 2014)*: … Continue reading
New Law Review Article: Qualified Immunity and Statutory Interpretation
Qualified Immunity and Statutory Interpretation, Ilan Wurman, 37 Seattle Univ. L. R. 939 (2014). Abstract: Before the 1989 case of Graham v. Connor, excessive force cases were pursued under either state law or the insuperable “shocks the conscience” test of … Continue reading
CA6: Passing the BAC test doesn’t mean the stop was illegal
The officer here had probable cause to stop plaintiff for an illegal lane change shown on the dashcam video. Plaintiff smelled of alcohol and there was probable cause for arrest. The fact he passed the BAC test didn’t vitiate the … Continue reading
CA3: Knock-and-talk at back door violated curtilage and Fourth Amendment
The knock and talk exception only applies to the front door. If the officer goes to the back door first, the knock and talk exception doesn’t apply. The officer’s entry onto the curtilage here was a violation of the curtilage … Continue reading
WaPo: Despite court rulings, people are still getting arrested for recording on-duty cops
WaPo: Despite court rulings, people are still getting arrested for recording on-duty cops by Radley Balko The latest incident comes from Massachusetts. And, since the courts are uniform on this, there will be no qualified immunity for such an arrest.
CA9: Mistaken stop on Automatic License Plate Reader gets no qualified immunity
Plaintiff was subject to an erroneous felony stop because of a hit by an Automatic License Plate Reader. Summary judgment of her § 1983 claim on qualified immunity for false arrest and excessive force was reversed, and the case sent … Continue reading
CA7: Warrantless entry to seize a mental health patient 9 hrs after Dr’s call wasn’t exigent, but qualified immunity applies
A police entry to seize a person and her guns 9 hours after a doctor’s call she was a danger to herself or others was kind of “exigent,” but nevertheless treated as a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Still, qualified … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Prison visitor strip search lacked justification; no qualified immunity
Plaintiff’s prison visit questioning for 15-20 minutes about whether she had brought drugs into a prison was reasonable. Her strip search based on an anonymous tip was completely uncorroborated and was without reasonable suspicion. The law had been clearly established … Continue reading
IA: No qualified immunity for overseizure in violation of SW; county attorney’s opinion conferred no additional immunity
The police here were held liable in a § 1983 case in state court for overseizure beyond the scope of the search warrant. They brought along the alleged victim who told them what else to seize and none of it … Continue reading
ME: Psych ward strip search without justification stated a claim
Plaintiff was ordered strip searched in a psych unit, allegedly without any justification that there were drugs on her. When she refused, two male security guards were called to do it. The law was clearly established at the time so … Continue reading