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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,
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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
M.D.Fla.: Borrower of a car has standing to challenge its search
Following cases from other circuits, since this circuit hasn’t ruled, the borrower of a car has standing to challenge its search. The traffic stop was justified, and reasonable suspicion developed thereafter. United States v. Baker, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73856 … Continue reading
OR: State could not raise new argument in CoA after remand never developed in trial court
On remand from the Supreme Court, the state asserted an argument never made in the trial court, and it’s treated as waived since there was no factual development. The prior decision is adhered to. State v. Heater, 271 Or. App. … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: A cell phone is an “instrumentality” of a drug crime; turning on a cell phone to see if it answers is not a “search”
Defendant’s 12 cell phones could be seized as instrumentalities of a drug crime under a search warrant. Calling a number the officers obtained during a wiretap to identify a phone was not an illegal search. Turning on the phones just … Continue reading
Two on qualified immunity
City code enforcement officers do not get qualified immunity for seizure of unlicensed cars parked in his yard where they entered the property, and were doing an administrative seizure with no notice of appeal rights which were provided for by … Continue reading
Daily Report: Barbershop Raid Case Settles After Full Appeals Court Orders Mediation
Daily Report: Barbershop Raid Case Settles After Full Appeals Court Orders Mediation by Alyson Palmer: A civil rights case over a raid on a Florida barbershop has settled for $125,000, leaving unresolved a federal appeals question about whether law enforcement … Continue reading
MA: SW for CP on video camera, cell phone, and computer permitted plain view seizure of separate memory cards later searched with a warrant
The police executing a search warrant for nude images of defendant’s 13-year-old stepdaughter on a video camera, cell phone, and computer properly seized three memory cards from digital cameras under the plain view doctrine because his stepdaughter stated he used … Continue reading
CA6: Handcuffing for open carry in Ohio stated a claim; no qualified immunity
The Ohio legislature decided that open carry is permissible with a CCW. Plaintiff was stopped and handcuffed for thirty minutes and let go. He states a claim and qualified immunity is no defense. “Where it is lawful to possess a … Continue reading
CA6: Indictment not founded on false facts precludes Bivens action
Michigan Hutaree militia members were indicted, tried, and acquitted. Their Bivens action for malicious prosecution fails. The indictment was not based on provably false testimony, and there was thus probable cause for the case to go forward. “The indictment in … Continue reading
CA7: No Fourth Amendment Heck bar in false statements case
Plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment civil claim not barred by Heck v. Humphrey because it says nothing about, and doesn’t undermine, his false statement conviction. Hill v. Murphy, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 7351 (7th Cir. May 4, 2015) (concurrence):
Courthouse News Service: Ferguson Police Face Scrutiny of 8th Circuit
Courthouse News Service: Ferguson Police Face Scrutiny of 8th Circuit by Joe Harris: ST. LOUIS (CN) – A black man who claims he was charged with destruction of police property for bleeding on Ferguson police officers’ uniforms during a brutal … Continue reading
CA11: The beating of ptf to “subdue” him after flight from officer was reasonable
Defendant fled from an officer reaching into his truck to stop him from leaving. Ultimately he wrecked his truck. Despite his desire to surrender, “he noticed a small retention pond and — for reasons he asserts are unknown even to … Continue reading
CA10: Ptf’s Fourth Amendment claim here creates a Heck bar to relief
Plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment 1983 claim was barred by Heck v. Humphrey. He also did nothing to controvert the probable cause affidavit of the police. Lemmons v. Clymer, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 5484 (10th Cir. April 6, 2015).* Defendant’s argument that … Continue reading
E.D.Wash.: SW for taking blood presumes that it will be tested, too, and the warrant doesn’t need to specify
A warrant for taking blood presumes that it will be tested, too, and the warrant doesn’t need to specify. A Washington state case saying otherwise is not followed. In any event, it would be in good faith to have tested … Continue reading
CA4: Without emotional distress claim, knock-and-announce violation worth only nominal damages
A knock-and-announce violation is clearly established law, so no qualified immunity. But here, without an emotional distress claim, it’s only worth nominal damages, so the damages should be remitted. Here, there was a death of another, but plaintiff waived any … Continue reading
CA6: Arrest of school teacher for sex abuse of student was not based on “reasonably trustworthy” information; false arrest case can proceed
School teacher’s arrest for anally sodomizing a student at school arguably lacked probable cause, and the student’s claims were not properly and fully investigated before the arrest after the story became more and more implausible. The student gave an implausible … Continue reading
CA10: Qualified immunity, clearly established law, and tasering as excessive force
Qualified immunity, clearly established law, and tasering as excessive force. Aldaba v. Pickens, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 1822 (10th Cir. February 4, 2015): B. Clearly Established Law Having held that the alleged facts regarding the initial taser strike would be … Continue reading
CA5: Use of deadly force to stop a fleeing driver with officer on running board was objectively reasonable
An officer attempted to arrest the driver of a vehicle on a warrant, but the driver refused to submit and drove off, with the officer on the running board. Ultimately, the officer shot and killed the driver. The use of … Continue reading
CA11: Ptf’s motorcycle crash fleeing police was not excessive force
Plaintiff led officers on a high-speed chase on a motorcycle through two counties, at times reaching 110 mph. In a city, “[i]ndeed, the video shows that he covered the 4.8 miles between the intersections of Z-Horse Charters and South East … Continue reading