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Recent Posts
- E.D.Tenn.: Application for SW was considered in detention ruling
- TN: RS didn’t develop to continue stop; second stop based on first suppressed
- CA4: Traffic stop immediately became firearms investigation; suppressed
- CA10: Disagreement over spelling of street name didn’t make warrant fail particularity; GFE at least would apply
- VA: Statutory requirement to provide SW papers only applies to “places of abode”
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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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General (many free):
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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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) -
“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: Private search
CA1: Two computer tech’s searches were private searches; police called after first, but didn’t have enough
Defendant took his computer for repair, and the repair guy encountered pictures of children that made him uncomfortable. He called the police and described them. The officer didn’t think that a crime occurred, and he said so. The computer guy … Continue reading
Private search in the military: Military Times: Ask the Lawyer: Roommate reports marijuana stash
Military Times: Ask the Lawyer: Roommate reports marijuana stash by Mathew B. Tully: Q. My roommate found my stash of pot in our room and told our commander about it. Does that count as an unlawful search? A. Under Military … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Private search of envelope wasn’t expanded by the police
Defendant was subjected to a private search by his girlfriend, “Ms. X,” and records in envelopes were turned over to police. The looking in open envelopes is not analogous to the government’s looking at the film in their canisters like … Continue reading
IL: Cell phone search was not subject to community caretaking function where purpose was to call his relatives, but they looked at texts
Defendant’s cell phone was searched four years before Riley, and the state conceded that it applied. So, it argued that the community caretaking function or consent applied, and the court found neither applied. The state argued that the officers searched … Continue reading
TechChruch: Should Tech Companies Be Subject To The Fourth Amendment?
If the government compels production without process or a warrant, should the Fourth Amendment apply? What about the third-party doctrine? TechChruh: Should Tech Companies Be Subject To The Fourth Amendment? by Jeff Kosseff: In the wake of the San Bernardino … Continue reading
Two on private search: a police dispatcher and an ER nurse
Defendant’s girlfriend was a Louisiana State Police dispatcher. She suspected he was cheating on her, and she looked at his iPhone to see. She found a nude picture of her 12 year old daughter. At the time of the search, … Continue reading
CA11: Cell phone with CP on it was lost in a Wal-mart then abandoned
Defendants lost their cell phone in a Wal-Mart. The person finding the phone looked in it to see if there was identifying information, but there wasn’t. The phone wasn’t password protected. The person handling it found what appeared to be … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Defendant’s wife’s turning over his computer hard drive to police was a private search
Defendant was out of town when his wife found child pornography on the computer he let her regularly use. She called the police and turned over the hard drive, and they got a search warrant for a forensic examination. He … Continue reading
D.Haw.: Alleged illegal search by “marshals of the Kingdom of Atooi” wasn’t acquiesced in by federal or state officials
A crate of marijuana was searched by “marshals of the Kingdom of Atooi,” a Polynesian kingdom within Hawai’i not otherwise described. Their search was not at insistence or with the acquiescence of the state or federal government, and it could … Continue reading
Daily Business Review: Employers Need Policies on Searching Worker Smartphones
Daily Business Review: Employers Need Policies on Searching Worker Smartphones by Suhaill Morales: In the wake of NFL quarterback Tom Brady destroying his cell phone in the midst of the NFL Deflategate investigation, the incident took a turn from sports … Continue reading
CA2: Cooperator exceeded officer’s direction in conducting a private search, but it’s still reasonable
A cooperator ended up taking evidence from defendant’s house without police direction. It was a private search not governed by the Fourth Amendment. “‘A private person cannot act unilaterally as an agent or instrument of the state; there must be … Continue reading
NJ: private search doctrine doesn’t give the police the opportunity to do a search of the home without a warrant
The private search doctrine doesn’t give the police the opportunity to do a search of the home without a warrant. State v. Wright, 2015 N.J. LEXIS 549 (May 19, 2015). Syllabus by the court: The third-party intervention or private search … Continue reading
RI: LEO’s wife violated wiretap and SCA with keylogger, but his dept can use it in administrative proceedings
Plaintiff is a Rhode Island police officer whose wife installed a keylogger to track his computer usage about his potential infidelity. She turned it over to his department. He was suspended for two years with pay for the duration. Her … Continue reading
CA9: Witness’s later testimony revealed doubt on private search; remanded for that and whether there was a Brady violation
This case arose from a mortgage fraud indictment and trial where a combined Brady/Fourth Amendment issue arose after the trial. The government’s lead witness in procuring evidence testified after the trial that the defendant’s records were procured at the request … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Defendant not entitled to new counsel where appointed counsel wouldn’t file a frivolous motion to suppress
Defendant’s motion for appointment of new counsel because defense counsel refused to file a motion to suppress is denied. The motion was patently frivolous. Defendant was detained by Home Depot employees for shoplifting, and they removed a gun from him. … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Power company was not a state actor in providing electrical usage information
“The aphorism that ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’ would certainly apply to the law enforcement officials who investigated this case.” Here, the city sanitation workers were seeing large amounts of marijuana debris coming in, and they called the … Continue reading
CAAF: AFB gate security officer wasn’t AFOSI, so his involvement was private search on day off
Defendant’s wife enlisted aid from a family friend at an Air Force base who was in the gate security forces, and he wasn’t a criminal investigator. At the time all this arose, she was there for social purposes. The court … Continue reading