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- VA: Body cam video of valid arrest would not be suppressed
- NM: Trial court’s finding of consent is reversed because the court engaged in its own internet investigation beyond what the parties provided
- Reason: No Warrant, No Suspicion, No Problem: Flock and Border Cellphone Searches Excluded From 4th Amendment Rules
- Reason: Flock’s Gunfire Alerts Raise a New Fourth Amendment Question
- N.D.Ohio: Car in driveway was on curtilage and plain view prohibited
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
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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
CA9: Clearly established by 2014 for QI that chokehold on nonresisting detainee could be excessive force
It was clearly established at the time that a chokehold on a no longer resisting detainee was excessive force and all officers participating were potentially responsible. Martinez v. City of Pittsburg, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 19207 (9th Cir. June 19, … Continue reading
RI: Reasonable use of force to take inmate’s DNA under SW wasn’t grounds for suppression
The trial court erred in granting defendant’s motion to suppress the taking of his DNA by force under a search warrant when he refused to cooperate. He already had a reduced expectation of privacy in the jail, and the state’s … Continue reading
CA6: QI denied officers who Tased a man for not getting out of his car fast enough; he had recent surgery and a colostomy bag
Plaintiff was Tased when he slowly got out of a car after officers flashed badges on him. He was recovering from surgery and had a colostomy bag and staples in his stomach. While the use of force does not require … Continue reading
D.Ore. grants preliminary injunction against use of tear gas against peaceful protesters
Don’t Shoot Portland v. City of Portland, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 100801 (D. Ore. June 9, 2020): While the Court acknowledges that Mayor Wheeler has issued additional guidance on the use of tear gas during these protests, Defendant has not … Continue reading
CA4: “a reasonable jury could find that Jones was both secured and incapacitated” when police shot him; QI denied
“In 2013, Wayne Jones, a black man experiencing homelessness, was stopped by law enforcement in Martinsburg, West Virginia for walking alongside, rather than on, the sidewalk. By the end of this encounter, Jones would be dead. Armed only with a … Continue reading
CA10: 15-minute call to EPIC when officer given inconsistent travel plans wasn’t unreasonable
Inconsistent travel plans coming from the driver and passenger justified a 15 minute call to EPIC to see if the vehicle had crossed the border recently, and this was not unreasonable. United States v. Morales, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 17865 … Continue reading
D.Colo: TRO granted against excessive force or use of chemical agents against peaceful protestors
Abay v. City of Denver, 20-cv-01616-RBJ (D. Colo. June 5, 2020, 8:39 pm):
MD: Officer’s take down of def when he got out of his car was unjustified, so frisk invalid
The officer’s take down of the defendant when he got out of his car wasn’t supported by the record. Thus, the following frisk was unjustified. Williams v. State, 2020 Md. App. LEXIS 512 (May 29, 2020):
CA6: Duration of police dog bite as reasonable force
Zuress v. City of Newark, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 17134 (6th Cir. May 29, 2020):
CA8: Police shooting of man with gun who hadn’t pointed it without warning was unreasonable
The use of deadly force here wasn’t reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. The shooting victim had a gun in hand but he hadn’t threatened the officer with it. The failure to give a warning warn “exacerbate[s] the circumstances” and supports … Continue reading
CA5: When an excessive force claim is properly analyzed under the 4A , the 14A is inapplicable
“[W]hen a claim is properly analyzed under the Fourth Amendment, the Fourteenth is inapplicable. Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 395 (1989) (holding that ‘all claims that law enforcement officers have used excessive force-deadly or not-in the course of an … Continue reading
CA11: Shooting passenger in a car used as a weapon unreasonable
Shooting a passenger in a car that was allegedly used as a weapon was unreasonable because the passenger had no control over the car and his shooting wouldn’t stop the car. Robinson v. Rankin, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 15297 (11th … Continue reading
CA11: Officer reasonably mistook dog’s whimper inside for person in distress; entry valid
“The major question presented on appeal is whether it was reasonable for officers, mistaking a dog’s whimper for a person in distress, to enter Evans’s home without a warrant. Given the totality of the circumstances, we say yes.” United States … Continue reading
OH9: Possession of <100g MJ is a nonarrestable offense, so a search incident was unreasonable
Possession of <100g marijuana is a nonarrestable offense, so a search incident was unreasonable. State v. R.L., 2020-Ohio-2811, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 1774 (9th Dist. May 6, 2020). Without a motion to suppress, there’s no vehicle for development of a … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Backpack in vehicle was subject to frisk under Terry
Search of defendant’s backpack in a vehicle was justified by reasonable suspicion under Terry it contained a weapon. Alternatively, the backpack search could have been permitted under inventory. United States v. McGinnist, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69325 (E.D. Mich. Apr. … Continue reading
CA8: Tasing ptf eight times even while handcuffed was reasonable where he was always violently resisting
Tasing plaintiff repeatedly was not excessive force where he continued to violently resist even when handcuffed. Franklin v. Franklin Cty., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 13193 (8th Cir. Apr. 24, 2020). The officer shot plaintiff after he fled after a patdown … Continue reading
HI: No prior showing of PC is required for a penal summons
No prior showing of probable cause is required for a penal summons because there is no arrest or custody under Gerstein v. Pugh. State v. Thompson, 2020 Haw. App. LEXIS 151 (Apr. 24, 2020). The district court properly denied qualified … Continue reading
OH2: Excessive force in stop-and-frisk was unreasonable
Use of excessive bodily force for a stop-and-frisk by lifting defendant into a wall was unreasonable where defendant did nothing to justify it. That required suppressing the stop. State v. Johnson, 2020-Ohio-2742, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 1707 (2d Dist. May … Continue reading
KY: After DL found suspended, stop can be extended
When defendant was stopped and found to have a suspended license, the normal incidents of a traffic stop are accordingly extended, and that didn’t make waiting for a drug dog unreasonable. Olmeda v. Commonwealth, 2020 Ky. App. LEXIS 40 (Apr. … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: SW for telephone records not required instead of a subpoena
Defendant was entitled to a search warrant rather than a search warrant to obtain his telephone records. United States v. McClain, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55427 (W.D. N.Y. Mar. 30, 2020). The search warrant application for child pornography wasn’t at … Continue reading