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- E.D.Mich.: Second SW for cell phone data retained by govt was valid
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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: § 1983 / Bivens
E.D.Mich.: Prosecutor allegedly drafting false affidavit without PC not absolutely immune
A prosecutor allegedly drafting a false affidavit without probable cause for arrest warrant has no absolute immunity. There is no absolute immunity for drafting questions for a witness interview by another that explicitly avoids exculpatory information. Macmaster v. Busacca, 2021 … Continue reading
D.N.M.: In Torres v. Madrid on remand, defs get QI; right not clearly established in 2014
Torres v. Madrid, 141 S. Ct. 989 (2021) on remand: Defendants get qualified immunity because it wasn’t clearly established in 2014 that a shooting was an arrest. Torres v. Madrid, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 248358 (D.N.M. Dec. 30, 2021). [Once … Continue reading
CA7: Ptf’s manufactured evidence claim survives QI
Plaintiff was tried and acquitted for murder. He sued under § 1983 after two years in custody alleging evidence for his trial was fabricated and exculpatory evidence was withheld. The district court denied qualified immunity, and the defendants appealed. Defendants … Continue reading
S.D.Ind.: Not all 4A claims are Heck barred, but ptf here “has pled himself into a Heck bar”
“The Court acknowledges that not all Fourth Amendment claims are barred by Heck. Indeed, a civil rights claim may go forward before a conviction is invalidated where the civil rights violation ‘does not inevitably undermine a conviction.’ Booker v. Ward, … Continue reading
D.Del.: 4A child seizure claim requires the child be a party
A Fourth Amendment child seizure claim requires the child be a party, even if the parents assert the child’s rights. Spahr v. Collins, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 241127 (D.Del. Dec. 17, 2021). Defendant in his 2255 cannot show defense counsel … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: For § 1988 fee shifting, SCOTUS expert fees not awarded, only local rate
The fact expert Fourth Amendment counsel would have charged the client $1,000-1,800 before SCOTUS isn’t binding on the district court for fee shifting. The local rate is what’s reasonable. Agudath Israel of America v. Hochul, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 233088 … Continue reading
CA7: Malicious prosecution case is based on a lack of PC
Malicious prosecution claim is ultimately based on a lack of probable cause. Summary judgment here inappropriate. Gupta v. Melloh, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 35934 (7th Cir. Dec. 6, 2021):
W.D.Wash.: Carpenter does not apply to private searches
Carpenter does not apply to private searches, citing United States v. Miller, 982 F.3d 412, 431 (6th Cir. 2020), and United States v. Ringland, 966 F.3d 731, 737 (8th Cir. 2020). Kleiser v. Chavez, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 232013 (W.D.Wash. … Continue reading
Misc.
There was probable cause for the first and second search warrants for child pornography on defendant’s devices (took ~100 pages to say that). No exclusionary rule; good faith exception applies, too. United States v. Pena, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 218914 … Continue reading
Reason: SCOTUS Has Made It Practically Impossible To Sue a Rights-Violating Federal Officer
Reason: SCOTUS Has Made It Practically Impossible To Sue a Rights-Violating Federal Officer by Damon Root (“Several recent Supreme Court decisions have made it practically impossible to sue a federal officer over alleged violations of constitutional rights. Now the Court … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Supposed Franks challenge really only expressing things for cross at trial
Defendant’s motion to reconsideration seems to raise a Franks-type challenge to the search which was not the focus of his original motion to suppress. What he raises “may be interesting cross-examination at trial, [but] they fail entirely to undermine the … Continue reading
CA10: Exclusionary rule doesn’t apply in § 1983 cases
“Plaintiffs maintain that, because Salt Lake City Police violated the Fourth Amendment by unconstitutionally searching and seizing Jerrail Taylor and Adam Thayne, their statements should be excluded in this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 lawsuit. They advance this argument despite the … Continue reading
CA9: Heck claims should be dismissed without prejudice
Heck claims should be dismissed without prejudice in case the plaintiff can invalidate the conviction. Lund v. California, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 32096 (9th Cir. Oct. 26, 2021). The case has a helpful explanation of Heck:
D.Idaho: SW for stolen iPhone permitted plain view and seizure of drugs seen on execution
An iPhone was stolen. The owner reported to police it had been turned on at a particular address. Officers got a search warrant for that address, and entered. Drugs in plain view could be seized. United States v. Curiel, 2021 … Continue reading
NY Times: If the Police Lie, Should They Be Held Liable? Often the Answer Is No.
NY Times: If the Police Lie, Should They Be Held Liable? Often the Answer Is No. by Shaila Dewan (“Federal agents and police officers who work with them are often immune from lawsuits, even for serious rights violations. The Supreme … Continue reading
CA9: Govt proved inevitable discovery of victims despite suppressing search of motel room
The officers’ investigation had progressed enough to have embarked on a course to readily identify defendant’s victims before the illegal search of the motel room. The government proved inevitable discovery. In addition, this wasn’t so flagrant, despite the granting of … Continue reading
CA10: No Bivens remedy for false arrest and malicious prosecution
No Bivens remedy for false arrest and malicious prosecution. Even if wrong, there was qualified immunity here. Boudette v. Buffington, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 24512 (10th Cir. Aug. 17, 2021). The citizen informant called police to say that there was … Continue reading
CA8: Handcuffing for two minutes was not an unreasonable seizure when based on furtive movements
Plaintiffs’ handcuffing for two minutes because of furtive movements was reasonable. “Based on the totality of the circumstances, we conclude that the investigative detention did not become an arrest here because Officer Marzolf only used handcuffs briefly (under two minutes) … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: SW issuing judge has judicial immunity
You can’t sue a judge for issuing a warrant where there’s no allegation that the judge abandoned the judicial role [harkening to good faith exception too]. Kolle v. Kyle, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 148629 (S.D.Ohio Aug. 9, 2021). The smell … Continue reading