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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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"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: Excessive force
E.D.Ark.: Stopping highspeed chase with motorcycle by causing accident not unreasonable under Scott
An officer’s pulling in front of a motorcycle eluding police at 105 mph was not a Fourth Amendment violation. “Accordingly, even if Duvall pulled his car over in a manner likely to cause the collision and serious injury or death, … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: Some force inheres in any arrest; de minimus force is reasonable
Some amount of force occurs in any arrest. The question is unreasonableness. “Garrett’s conclusory allegation regarding Williams’s specific actions establishes no more than the use of de minimis force by Williams, which does not constitute a Fourth Amendment violation.” Garrett … Continue reading
CA11: Tasing grand mal seizure sufferer held down by four men was excessive on its face; no QI
The officer’s repeated Tasings of the teenager who was suffering a grand mal seizure amounted to excessive force. The district court properly denied qualified immunity, because the constitutional violation was clearly established based on both materially similar case law and … Continue reading
CA5: Warrantless entry to seize suicidal ptf was reasonable
The officer’s warrantless entry to seize the allegedly suicidal plaintiff was based on probable ause and exigency. “The exigency of a credible risk that a person is about to end their life justifies the warrantless entries into Clark’s hotel room … Continue reading
CA5: Police accidentally shooting a hostage isn’t an intentional seizure
“Here, the only plausible reading of the allegations is that Doe accidentally shot Ulises while trying to help him by ending the hostage situation. Such accidental conduct does not result in a Fourth Amendment seizure. See Brower, 489 U.S. at … Continue reading
VICE: Dashcam Video Shows a State Trooper Ordering His Dog to Bite Man for Nearly 4 Minutes
VICE: Dashcam Video Shows a State Trooper Ordering His Dog to Bite Man for Nearly 4 Minutes by Trone Dowd (“After an investigation, Parker Surbrook has been charged with felony assault.”)
CA9: Violent take down of traffic detainee not resisting could be found excessive; no QI
Qualified immunity is denied officers for excessive force in a violent take down on a passively resisting plaintiff in a traffic stop without there being any exigency justifying it. “Viewing the facts, as we must, in the light most favorable … Continue reading
CA8: Presenting def with DNA SW after he lawyers up wasn’t attempt to reopen interrogation
Presenting defendant with a search warrant for DNA swabs during an interrogation after he lawyered up was a statement of fact and not an attempt to get him to talk again. Thus, Miranda not violated. United States v. Zephier, 2021 … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Police dog attack on wrong person not promptly called off was excessive
The officer had reasonable suspicion to frisk three men before they fled him. Releasing a police dog was not unreasonable. The dog’s attack of a 40ish woman, however, was not seen to be reasonable, and the dog was not promptly … Continue reading
Reason: A Prison Guard Who Pepper-Sprayed an Inmate Without Provocation Got Qualified Immunity. SCOTUS Disagreed.
Reason: A Prison Guard Who Pepper-Sprayed an Inmate Without Provocation Got Qualified Immunity. SCOTUS Disagreed. By Billy Binion (“An encouraging sign from the Supreme Court.”)
CA5: Tasering a man threatening suicide who doused himself in gasoline was subject to qualified immunity when the Taser set him on fire
Plaintiff’s decedent doused himself in gasoline and threatened to burn the house down with six people inside. He had a lighter in hand. The officers used their Tasers on him as a last resort, and that caused him to burst … Continue reading
CA9: California negligent excessive force law broader than 4A; ptf stated claim
California negligence law permits negligent excessive force actions where the Fourth Amendment might not. Plaintiff adequately stated and supported a claim for a police shooting death of a mentally ill man. Tabares v. City of Huntington Beach, 2021 U.S. App. … Continue reading
Law Review: How the Fourth Amendment Frustrates the Regulation of Police Violence
Seth W. Stoughton, How the Fourth Amendment Frustrates the Regulation of Police Violence, 70 Emory L. J. 521 (2021):
CA3: Crashing a fleeing car here wasn’t excessive force
Crashing a fleeing car here wasn’t unreasonable as excessive force. “Here, we agree with the District Court’s determination that no reasonable juror could find that the force used by Officer Biagini was excessive. It is beyond dispute that, in the … Continue reading
CA6: Excessive force and qualified immunity; officer responding to threat of force
“The record here demonstrates the defendant officers’ use of deadly force was objectively reasonable. Three of the four officers surrounding McShann’s vehicle testified that when McShann woke, he was compliant or mostly compliant with their order that he put his … Continue reading
CA7: Computer search condition was not related to crime of conviction and was thus unreasonable
Defendant’s computer search release condition had no rational relationship to the crime. He was not a sex offender and there was no computer link to his crimes. United States v. Morgan, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 2972 (7th Cir. Feb. 3, … Continue reading
CA11: When “[n]o force was justified, … any force was excessive.”
“We agree with the district court that Officer Kahl’s use of force was unreasonable. Although Officer Kahl’s actions did not result in severe physical harm, they were not proportional to the situation. The severity of injury may be evidence of … Continue reading
CA9: Passenger also shot in effort to stop vehicle was seized under 4A; SJ denied on reasonableness of force
A vehicle passenger who was not intentionally targeted by the officers had a cognizable Fourth Amendment interest under Brower v. County of Inyo and Brendlin v. California. His freedom of movement was terminated when the officers intentionally shot at the … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: 8A applies to excessive force claims in prison
The Eighth Amendment applies to excessive force claims in prison; the Fourth Amendment to free worlders. Rodriguez v. United States, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4100 (E.D. Cal. Jan. 7, 2021). The court believes the officer over the defendant on whether … Continue reading