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- MD: Hot pursuit can be days later, here exigent CSLI to find him
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- CA4: That ptf charged with witness intimidation didn’t do it again wasn’t material for Franks
- CO: Not 4A or state constitutional violation for govt to access def’s computer via peer-to-peer sharing with BitTorrent software
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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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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: Police misconduct
The Atlantic: What Are the Limits of Police Subterfuge?
The Atlantic: What Are the Limits of Police Subterfuge? by Bruce Schneier: A warrantless FBI search in Las Vegas sets a troubling precedent.
New Yorker: No Such Thing as Racial Profiling
New Yorker: No Such Thing as Racial Profiling by Jelani Cobb: The stilted conversations that have followed these tragedies have largely focussed on the meaning and implications of the nonsensical phrase ‘racial profiling.’ Nothing better illustrates the slick, manipulative power … Continue reading
HuffPo: Tommy Wall Loses Job, House, Reputation After Police Wrongly Charge Him With Child Rape
HuffPo: Tommy Wall Loses Job, House, Reputation After Police Wrongly Charge Him With Child Rape by David Lohr. They arrested based on his alleged resemblance to a man in a video, but didn’t look at the video until playing it … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service: Drug-Planting Case Against Cops Proceeds
Courthouse News Service: Drug-Planting Case Against Cops Proceeds by Arvin Temkar: SAN JOSE (CN) – A woman may pursue claims that Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies planted drugs in her home, a federal judge ruled. Allison Ross sued the sheriff, … Continue reading
CA7: Persons tortured for confessions must sue within SOL, not wait for others
Plaintiffs claiming they were tortured for a confession by an “infamous” Chicago cop and his “henchmen” who was later convicted of doing just that could not claim equitable tolling. They had to sue based on when it happened. The case … Continue reading
WaPo: A raid, multiple tasings, two arrests, and a home “ripped apart”: Can you guess the suspected crime?
WaPo: A raid, multiple tasings, two arrests, and a home “ripped apart”: Can you guess the suspected crime? by Radley Balko: If you guessed “underage drinking,” stumble to the head of the class. And all of that doesn’t really even … Continue reading
The Atlantic: How FBI Lies Can Damage Civil Society
The Atlantic: How FBI Lies Can Damage Civil Society by Conor Friedersdorf: The FBI lies a lot. Sometimes that’s fully justified. Brave agents risk their lives to infiltrate terrorist cells, organized crime, and child-pornography rings. Subterfuge is vital to these … Continue reading
WaPo: Unusual lawsuit challenges police seizure tactics
WaPo: Unusual lawsuit challenges police seizure tactics by Robert O’Harrow Jr.: The two men in the rented red Nissan Altima were poker players traveling through Iowa on their way to Las Vegas. The police were state troopers on the hunt … Continue reading
WSJ: Lynch: Civil Actions Against Police Agencies Can Spur ‘Systemic Change’
Wall Street Journal Law Blog: Lynch: Civil Actions Against Police Agencies Can Spur ‘Systemic Change’ by Jacob Gershman: How would President Barack Obama’s Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch approach a high-profile police controversy like the one that engulfed Ferguson, Mo., … Continue reading
NPR: Can Authorities Cut Off Utilities And Pose As Repairmen To Search A Home?
NPR: Can Authorities Cut Off Utilities And Pose As Repairmen To Search A Home? by Nina Totenberg: Some legal cases do more than raise eyebrows – they push the legal envelope to change the law. Such is a federal case … Continue reading
Atlantic: California Can’t Police Its Own Cops Stealing Nude Photos of Women
Atlantic: California Can’t Police Its Own Cops Stealing Nude Photos of Women by Conor Friedersdorf: Local authorities are investigating a highway-patrol scandal, but their perverse incentives mean federal authorities need to step in. The story the court documents tell is … Continue reading
HuffPo: CHP Officer Allegedly Steals Nude Photos From DUI Suspect’s Phone
HuffPo: Officer Sean Harrington Allegedly Steals Nude Photos From DUI Suspect’s Phone by Andres Jauregui: A California Highway Patrol officer is under investigation after he allegedly forwarded nude photos of a female suspect to his phone. Officer Sean Harrington, 35, … Continue reading
HuffPo: Yes, It’s Legal To Film The Cops — And What’s Been Filmed In Recent Months Is Appalling
HuffPo: Yes, It’s Legal To Film The Cops — And What’s Been Filmed In Recent Months Is Appalling by Christopher Mathias: NEW YORK — It’s becoming clearer and clearer that smartphones have ushered in a new era of police accountability. … Continue reading
CA9: No qualified immunity to handcuffing ADHD child who wouldn’t leave school grounds
Officers were entitled to qualified immunity with regard to an unconstitutional seizure of a minor child with attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder who was sitting quietly but was unresponsive and refused to leave a school playground, since a reasonable officer would … Continue reading
The Atlantic: Zap! Should the State Keep Shocking Citizens to Enforce Minor Laws?
The Atlantic: Zap! Should the State Keep Shocking Citizens to Enforce Minor Laws? by Conors Friedersdorf: A man shocked into submission after walking his dog off leash sues, and wins long overdue limits on Taser-happy law enforcement.
WSJ: Police Stops Erode Support From New York Residents [Well, duh]
WSJ: Police Stops Erode Support From New York Residents [Well, duh] by Pervaiz Shallwani: A rare, large-scale police department survey of New York City residents found that the more times a person is stopped by an officer, their favorable view … Continue reading
NYLJ: Circuit Denies Request for New Stop-and-Frisk Panel
NYLJ: Circuit Denies Request for New Stop-and-Frisk Panel by Mark Hamblett: Over the objection of plaintiffs’ lawyers in New York City’s stop-and-frisk litigation, circuit judges Jose Cabranes, Barrington Parker and John Walker-the panel who had blocked Southern District Judge Shira … Continue reading
The Root: Ohio Police Change Story and Arrest Couple During Traffic Stop
The Root: Ohio Police Change Story and Arrest Couple During Traffic Stop by Stephen A. Crockett Jr.: A cellphone video of a police stop has gone viral, with a police officer shown telling a couple during a routine traffic stop … Continue reading
The Oregonian: $562,000 jury award against Portland police is largest brutality verdict in city history
The Oregonian: $562,000 jury award against Portland police is largest brutality verdict in city history by Aimee Green: A jury’s decision last week to award more than $562,000 to a 40-year-old man who was repeatedly punched in the head and … Continue reading