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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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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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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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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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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, Little Rock 
Category Archives: § 1983 / Bivens
CA11: Takedown of otherwise compliant arrestee was reasonable
Plaintiff’s takedown by the officer was reasonable under the circumstances and not excessive, even if she was otherwise compliant. “Even assuming that Horn was totally compliant with Officer Barron, he was allowed to use some force in effecting her arrest. … Continue reading
CA10: Franks doesn’t apply to private actors providing false information to LEOs
Even assuming private volunteer animal cruelty investigators provided false information that was used to get search warrants issued for plaintiffs’ property for evidence of cockfighting, qualified immunity applies because no case holds that the Franks doctrine applies to a private … Continue reading
CA2: In a § 1983 case alleging lack of PC from omission of information to issuing magistrate, it’s ptf’s burden
In this § 1983 case there was probable cause for issuance of an animal abuse warrant. To argue the probable cause was tainted by omission of information, plaintiff carries the burden, and here she failed. Kanciper v. Lato, 2017 U.S. … Continue reading
CA4: Officer who obtained court order for minor ptf to be detained and to get an erection so police could photograph it gets no QI; this isn’t remotely reasonable
Plaintiff was a 17 year old that allegedly sent a picture of his erection to his 15 year old girlfriend. Defendant obtained a court order for plaintiff to be transported to a juvenile detention center to masturbate to get an … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Police officer’s presence at repossession doesn’t make it state action
A police officer’s presence at the scene of a vehicle repossession doesn’t turn an otherwise private action into a Fourth Amendment seizure. King v. Blackhawk Recovery & Investigations, LLC, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 198373 (E.D. Mich. Dec. 3, 2017). “As … Continue reading
CA7: Nolo plea after losing suppression hearing is collateral estoppel
A state multiday suppression hearing was denied, and that led to defendant’s nolo plea to the charges. Then he sued in federal court. When collateral estoppel was invoked, he argued that the plea vitiated collateral estoppel. It didn’t. Derrick v. … Continue reading
NY1: Suppression of firearm in criminal case wasn’t collateral estoppel in civil case where ptf didn’t offer any evidence
Suppression of a firearm in the criminal court was not collateral estoppel to a civil case for false arrest, particularly where plaintiff offered no evidence at all. Davidson v. City of New York, 2017 NY Slip Op 08313, 2017 N.Y. … Continue reading
CA6: Litigating and losing a search issue in state court estops a federal claim over same issue
Collateral estoppel applied where defendant lost on his search issue in state court so he could not litigate it in federal court. Also, he claimed a Franks violation that the officers misled the issuing magistrate, but that was not factually … Continue reading
CA3: Entry onto ptfs’ rural land to serve a small claims complaint was over open fields
Defendant is a deputy sheriff who had a summons and complaint for a small claims case. He came by plaintiffs’ rural property three prior times to serve it. They lived on 75 acres and the house and a law office … Continue reading
D.Minn.: PO knowing def’s history saw a bulge in def’s pocket, and this was justification for a search
Defendant was on supervised release. The officer “then saw a bulge in Becerra’s pocket that he suspected could be a weapon. [He thus] had probable cause at the time he arrested Becerra to believe that Becerra was violating his supervised … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Def was alleged to be involved in a pill mill, but SW was for his home; affidavit showed nexus to home for instrumentalities of crime
Police got a search warrant for defendant’s home in a pill mill case. “This affidavit did not attempt to establish probable cause to believe Knight was conducting prescription drug deals at his home. Instead, it attempted to establish probable cause … Continue reading
WaPo: Body searches of 900 Georgia students by sheriff’s office leads to $3 million settlement
WaPo: Body searches of 900 Georgia students by sheriff’s office leads to $3 million settlement by Susan Hogan:
KS: Stop-and-frisk was a factually justified “discretionary function” and the officer couldn’t be sued
With a due comparison to Det. Martin McFadden’s actions in observing John W. Terry and Richard D. Chilton in Terry v. Ohio, the officer on the totality was justified in inquiring of defendant what he was doing. Plaintiff wasn’t arrested, … Continue reading
D.N.M.: There was at least circumstantial evidence defs’ DNA would be found in evidence to justify SW for it
There was sufficient probable cause defendants were involved in a robbery and could be linked to evidence in the case for DNA samples to be taken from them by search warrants. “Although the Search Warrant lacks direct evidence that the … Continue reading
HI: Moving to suppress seizure of pill bottle incident to arrest didn’t cover later search of the bottle; issue waived
Defendant’s challenge to removal of a pill bottle from his person did not preserve a challenge to search of the pill bottle at the police station. “In any event, we conclude that Sado’s argument on appeal is without merit. Officer … Continue reading
C.D.Ill.: Ins. co. has standing to sue that audit would be 4A violation, and its claim is ripe. Motion to dismiss denied.
An insurance company subject to government audit has standing to challenge the legal basis for the audit. Its Fourth Amendment claim is ripe: “Fidelity’s Fourth Amendment claim in Count 1 presents a purely legal question, which renders the claim fit … Continue reading
CA6: No reasonable officer could conclude there was PC for pft’s arrest
“When reviewing the information known to Seidl at the time of Zavatson’s arrest, we conclude that no reasonable officer could have believed, based on anything more than speculation, that Zavatson had committed the purported theft. As an initial matter, there … Continue reading
CA6: Ptf’s guilty plea after losing suppression motion wasn’t collateral estoppel to § 1983 and Heck not implicated
Plaintiff sued over his body cavity search that was part of his state case. He litigated and lost in state trial court then pled guilty. His federal action does not implicate his conviction, and it can proceed under Heck v. … Continue reading
CA10: Defs did not violate clearly established 4A law by accessing the Utah Controlled Substance Database on plaintiffs’ prescriptions
Defendants did not violate clearly established Fourth Amendment law by accessing the Utah Controlled Substance Database on plaintiffs’ prescriptions (and the Fourth Amendment claim goes undecided). Pyle v. Woods, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 21713 (10th Cir. Nov. 1, 2017):