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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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Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
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Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
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General (many free):
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www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
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)
ACLU on privacy
Privacy Foundation
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
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
CA6: Plf’s stipulation there was PC in his criminal case that led to dismissal was judicial estoppel to bringing a civil case on the same facts
Plaintiff’s stipulation there was probable cause in his criminal case that led to dismissal was judicial estoppel to bringing a civil case on the same facts. Grise v. Allen, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 21358 (6th Cir. Oct. 26, 2017). The … Continue reading
CA5: Search of wrong house leads to liability: “An officer who makes no reasonable effort to correctly identify the place to be searched does not get immunity merely because someone else was leading the search.”
Sloppy police work leading to a search of the wrong house on a warrant leads to loss of qualified immunity: “An officer who makes no reasonable effort to correctly identify the place to be searched does not get immunity merely … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Officer’s belief that driver couldn’t stay in the passing lane wasn’t reasonable mistake
The officer’s belief that driving too long in the left lane of a divided highway was a traffic violation wasn’t reasonable because nothing in the statute allows that construction. Therefore, the stop was invalid. United States v. Buruato, 2017 U.S. … Continue reading
CA6: 4A claim barred by Heck so appeal summarily affirmed
Plaintiff’s civil rights Fourth Amendment claim is barred by Heck because it necessarily calls into question the validity of the underlying conviction. The claim is barred on its face, so qualified immunity is moot. West v. Saginaw Twp. Police Dep’t, … Continue reading
CA2: Correcting the alleged false statements in affidavit still leaves PC so officials have QI
Deleting the allegedly false information from the affidavit for search warrant leaving it as a “corrected” affidavit under Franks, there still was a fair probability for probable cause. That there might be other explanations doesn’t undermine probable cause. Therefore, defendants … Continue reading
D.Md.: Private extradition company’s employees could be sued under § 1983 and due process clauses but not 4A since he’s a pretrial detainee
Plaintiff sued an extradition company, Prisoner Transport Services of America (PTS) under § 1983 as a state actor and the Fourth Amendment and due process clauses for inmate abuse in a transport van, describing ugly conditions of transport. “While Plaintiff … Continue reading
CA4: Inventory policy’s failure to mention dealing with closed containers doesn’t make it unreasonable
The inventory policy sufficiently curtailed the officer’s discretion to be constitutional. It did not mention closed containers but that doesn’t make it unconstitutional. The officer’s search of a laptop case was reasonable even though the officer didn’t log everything that … Continue reading
CA6: Officer in § 1983 case didn’t show basis for warrantless entry; QI erroneously granted
Crediting the plaintiffs’ complaint and the proof thus far, the defendant officer did not show an excuse for dispensing with the warrant requirement for a warrantless entry into the plaintiffs’ home. Thus, summary judgment on qualified immunity was erroneously granted … Continue reading
CA6: Jail group strip searches invasive, but penologically justified; ptf must answer defs’ proffered justification
While group strip searches at a jail are invasive, there is a penological justification offered that plaintiff doesn’t answer. There is no clearly established law that these are unreasonable. “The issue we face is whether periodically conducting group strip searches … Continue reading
CA5: Bodycam video showed that this fatal shooting was apparently justified, and that essentially made credibility of the officer irrelevant
In this § 1983 action against a former deputy sheriff, which alleged excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment, the factual issues identified by the district court on summary judgment were immaterial in light of undisputed filmed facts of … Continue reading
CA9: In a civil Franks claim, withheld SW affidavit tolls limitations until discovery
Plaintiff claimed judicial deception in obtaining search warrants for his home and computers over the death of his wife. When the state had the warrant affidavits sealed, the two year statute of limitations on his claim of judicial deception did … Continue reading
CA5: Plaintiff’s civil search claim was barred by Heck v. Humphrey, but his due process claim was not
Plaintiff’s civil search claim was barred by Heck v. Humphrey, but his due process claim was not. Shugart v. Six Unknown Fannin Cty. Sheriffs, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 14190 (5th Cir. Aug. 2, 2017):
NPR: U.S. Citizen Who Was Held By ICE For 3 Years Denied Compensation By Appeals Court
NPR: U.S. Citizen Who Was Held By ICE For 3 Years Denied Compensation By Appeals Court by Camila Domonoske: In a ‘botched’ investigation, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement kept Davino Watson, a U.S. citizen, imprisoned as a deportable alien for nearly … Continue reading
CA9: § 1983 Franks violation: Ignoring alleged false statements still leaves PC
A search warrant was issued for alleged violations of the building code. Ignoring any alleged false statements that led to issuance of the search warrant, there still was probable cause. Gunnels v. Kenny, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 13204 (6th Cir. … Continue reading
NE: Reach under seat during traffic stop was RS
The officer suspected that a wanted person was in the car defendant was in and stopped it. As he approached the car, the driver reached under the seat. The wanted person wasn’t found, but there was reasonable suspicion from the … Continue reading
CA3: Public hospital’s taking child from ambulance at ER was reasonable since parents wouldn’t provide medical history or answer questions about child’s condition
Plaintiffs’ Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment claim against the defendant public hospital for taking their baby from an ambulance and treating it in the emergency room was reasonable under the circumstances. The hospital staff couldn’t get answers from the parents about … Continue reading
CA3: State court loss of suppression motion as private search was collateral estoppel to § 1983 case
Plaintiff was a student in a private university, and the RA in his dorm smelled burning marijuana in the hallway and narrowed it to plaintiff’s room. The next day, university security searched his room, and he was charged in the … Continue reading
N.D.Miss.: Heck bar doesn’t apply to search preceding arrest, but action stayed pending criminal case
Plaintiffs’ claim for illegal search and seizure at an internet café resulting in a criminal prosecution is not barred by Heck. The action is stayed, however, pending the outcome of the plaintiffs’ criminal trial. Moore v. Miss. Gaming Comm’n, 2017 … Continue reading
CA5: Ptf doesn’t show that city’s alleged failure to use SWAT teams “threat matrix” properly led to any constitutional violation
Plaintiff failed to show a pattern of unconstitutional actions or that the SWAT teams’ use of a “threat matrix” to determine when they would be called out was unconstitutional. Plaintiff doesn’t show that the failure to implement that matrix properly … Continue reading