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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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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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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)
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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
PA: Commercial truck checkpoint stops governed by Burger, not by general checkpoint rules
Checkpoint stops of commercial vehicle are government by New York v. Burger, already followed in Pennsylvania, and not other checkpoint case law. Checkpoint case law doesn’t fit with commercial vehicle inspections. Commonwealth v. Maguire, 2019 Pa. LEXIS 4704 (Aug. 22, … Continue reading
CA6: Pointing gun at teenagers in a car wreck for no apparent reason violated clearly established 4A law
Pointing a gun for two minutes at nonthreatening teenagers in a car wreck violated clearly established Fourth Amendment law. Vanderhoef v. Dixon, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 24897 (6th Cir. Aug. 21, 2019). Plaintiff is a frail 76-year-old man who came … Continue reading
CA5: At summary judgment stage, “[t]his is an obvious case” that can’t be resolved on summary judgment
“The summary judgment facts, as determined by the district court, are that Ryan posed no threat to the officers or others to support firing without warning. The ‘Officers had the time and opportunity to give a warning and yet chose … Continue reading
NPR: Calif. Gov. Newsom Expected To Sign Bill Limiting Police Use Of Deadly Force
NPR: Calif. Gov. Newsom Expected To Sign Bill Limiting Police Use Of Deadly Force by Ben Adler: California law enforcement will need to justify use of force as necessary, rather than reasonable, when a bill is expected to be signed … Continue reading
CA11: Shooting a man with a gun was close enough to reasonable under the circumstances for QI
Officers get qualified immunity for shooting a mentally retarded man they knew of when he was wandering the highway and was reported flashing a handgun at people. When the police encountered him, he wouldn’t show his hands and kept one … Continue reading
CA8 (en banc): Takedown of non-violent misdemeanant walking away was subject to QI
Defendant officer’s takedown of a misdemeanant who was walking away from him wasn’t clearly established and he gets qualified immunity. Kelsay v. Ernst, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 24059 (8th Cir. Aug. 13, 2019) (en banc; 4 dissents)*:
D.Mass.: GFE applies to scope of search under SW where place to be searched was two floors, not one
The issue here is whether the search warrant was overbroad because it turned out that the place to be searched was really two floors not one, but it wasn’t obvious from the outside. “The Court need not resolve this complex … Continue reading
The Appeal: Chicago Police Pointed Guns At And Traumatized Children in Botched Raids, Lawsuits Allege
The Appeal: Chicago Police Pointed Guns At And Traumatized Children in Botched Raids, Lawsuits Allege by Lauren Gill: Children as young as 4 years old are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result, the complaints say.
CA4: Tasing ptf twice was reasonable force because of his agitated state with a gun on his person
Tasing plaintiff twice was reasonable force because of his agitated state with a gun on his person. Hogan v. Beaumont, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 22861 (4th Cir. July 31, 2019):
D.S.C.: Failure to raise excessive force claim within search claim wasn’t IAC
Defense counsel’s failure to raise an excessive force claim as a part of his arrest wasn’t ineffective assistance of counsel on the merits of the arrest or subsequent search. Waters v. United States, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 128341 (D. S.C. … Continue reading
CA11: Deadly force on an unarmed man proved to be justified in the heat of the moment
An officer’s killing an unarmed man during a traffic stop was reasonable based on the officer’s reasonable reaction to what decedent was doing when he fished around in his vehicle and came out with an unknown object in his hand. … Continue reading
CA8: SWAT team’s use of a flashbang device to search a house for a cell phone was unreasonable (it was also the wrong house because the suspect hadn’t been there in two years)
It was objectively unreasonable for a SWAT team to break in a door and use a flashbang device to search a house for a cell phone where the suspect was already in custody and they knew it, they were at … Continue reading
Forbes: Cop Who Accidentally Shot 10-Year-Old When Aiming For Family Dog Can’t Be Sued, Federal Court Rules
Forbes: Cop Who Accidentally Shot 10-Year-Old When Aiming For Family Dog Can’t Be Sued, Federal Court Rules by Nick Sibilla:
CA11: Officer’s second gunshot at a dog not clearly established as excessive force; QI granted, ptf not even a target
Excessive force qualified immunity case: A second gunshot at a dog wasn’t clearly established to be excessive force, and plaintiff wasn’t even a target. Therefore, the officer gets qualified immunity. Corbitt v. Vickers, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 20447 (11th Cir. … Continue reading
Reason: Police Agree To Pay Woman $750,000 After Raiding Her House and Killing Her Dog Over an Unpaid Gas Bill
Reason: Police Agree To Pay Woman $750,000 After Raiding Her House and Killing Her Dog Over an Unpaid Gas Bill by Christian Britschgi: The case highlights the dangers of using SWAT teams for anything and everything.
S.D.Fla.: Ptf sufficiently pled a civil Franks claim that survives summary judgment and QI
Plaintiff sufficiently pled a civil Franks claim that survives summary judgment and qualified immunity. Wooden v. Armenteros, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106113 (S.D. Fla. June 25, 2019).* “At this stage of the proceedings, viewing the evidence in the light most … Continue reading
Cal.5: An unlawful arrest is not per se with excessive force under the 4A
An unlawful arrest is not per se with excessive force under the Fourth Amendment or state statute. People v. Perry, 2019 Cal. App. LEXIS 555 (5th Dist. June 18, 2019). The trial court’s finding that the police didn’t search defendant’s … Continue reading
News 5 Cleveland: Video shows 2 Cuyahoga Co. Jail officers beat inmate in restraint chair
News 5 Cleveland: Video shows 2 Cuyahoga Co. Jail officers beat inmate in restraint chair by Ian Cross: CLEVELAND — Newly-released video shows two Cuyahoga County Jail officers brutally beating a restrained inmate back in March of this year; both … Continue reading
N.D.Ala.: Def counsel not ineffective for not raising flash bang device as justifying suppression of the search that followed
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not filing a motion to suppress that use of a flash bang device was excessive force and justified suppression because it wouldn’t be under Herring. Also, defense counsel’s failure to challenge defendant’s arrest wasn’t ineffective … Continue reading
BuzzFeed.news: “Good Day for a Choke Hold”
BuzzFeed.news: “Good Day for a Choke Hold” by Emily Hoerner & Rick Tulsky: A review of the Facebook accounts of thousands of officers around the US — the largest database of its kind — found officers endorsing violence against Muslims, … Continue reading