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- E.D.Ky.: Being a lookout vehicle at a crime is RS
- E.D.Mich.: Missing 14 yo cell phone pinging at def’s house was exigency for entry to find her
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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: Forfeiture
Right on Crime: Civil Asset Forfeiture Summit Dallas, Feb. 9
Right on Crime: Civil Asset Forfeiture Summit Irving, TX Tuesday, February 9, 2016 from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM (CST)
Cincinnati.com: What’s next for feds’ seizure program after local payments stopped?
Cincinnati.com: What’s next for feds’ seizure program after local payments stopped? by James Pilcher: Local law enforcement agencies will no longer reap any rewards from a controversial federal program that allows police to take money and property from individuals – … Continue reading
WaPo: The Justice Department just shut down a huge asset forfeiture program
WaPo: The Justice Department just shut down a huge asset forfeiture program by Christopher Ingraham: The Department of Justice announced this week that it’s suspending a controversial program that allows local police departments to keep a large portion of assets … Continue reading
IA: Where def acquitted, denial of motion to suppress not preclusive in subsequent forfeiture action
Claimant’s acquittal of drug charges after denial of his motion to suppress gives the motion to suppress no preclusive effect. The stop here was unreasonable because it was dragged out, and the forfeiture is reversed. In the Matter of Property … Continue reading
USA Today: After illegal wiretap, suspects go free and want a refund
USA Today: After illegal wiretap, suspects go free and want a refund by Brad Heath and Brett Kelman: Prosecutors determined that wiretaps the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration used as the core of its investigation were illegal and couldn’t be used … Continue reading
Houston Chronicle: Miller: Texas fails to protect property owners from civil forfeiture
Houston Chronicle: Texas fails to protect property owners from civil forfeiture by Matt Miller: Texas law enforcement agencies have taken in over half a billion dollars in forfeiture revenue an average of $41.5 million per year. Civil forfeiture is a … Continue reading
Reason: Blog: New Mexico Cities Attempt to Ignore Tough Restrictions on Property Seizure. Lawsuits Follow.
Reason: Blog: New Mexico Cities Attempt to Ignore Tough Restrictions on Property Seizure. Lawsuits Follow. by Scott Shackford:
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: The booming business of asset forfeiture
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: The booming business of asset forfeiture: Given the recent efforts at the state and federal level to rein in asset forfeiture abuses, you might think that the practice is in decline. You’d be mistaken.
N.D.Ga.: Seizure of a computer under a warrant authorizes its search, even after the 14 day window
Seizure of a computer under a warrant authorizes its search, even after the 14 day window in the warrant. Phone conversations between defendant and his lawyer over the jail phone system were not subject to attorney-client privilege because there was … Continue reading
CA2: Seizure of property and cash for forfeiture requires a judicial finding of probable cause
Seizure of property and cash for forfeiture, even after exigency, requires a judicial finding of probable cause or a forfeiture count in an indictment. United States v. Cosme, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 13996 (August 10, 2015):
CA6: Michigan’s state forfeiture law doesn’t deprive due process after an officer seizes money
Officers can issue a notice of forfeiture under Michigan law, and the person subject to the forfeiture has a valid state remedy, and that satisfies due process. “Officer Jones’s testimony is troubling, and municipalities should take care to operate within … Continue reading
WaPo: How the IRS seized a man’s life savings without ever charging him with a crime
WaPo: How the IRS seized a man’s life savings without ever charging him with a crime by Christopher Ingraham: The United States of America, Plaintiff, v. $107,702.66 in United States Currency, Defendant. That’s the Kafkaesque title of a civil asset … Continue reading
WaPo: How the DEA took a young man’s life savings without ever charging him with a crime
WaPo: How the DEA took a young man’s life savings without ever charging him with a crime by Christopher Ingraham: Joseph Rivers was hoping to hit it big. According to the Albuquerque Journal, the aspiring businessman from just outside of … Continue reading
CA8: Even consent to forfeiture requires the government establish nexus between the property and the crime
Even a consent to forfeiture requires the government establish nexus between the property and the crime. United States v. Beltramea, 14-1899 (8th Cir. May 6, 2015):
LA Times: Report: Small L.A. County cities seize large amounts in civil forfeitures
LA Times: Report: Small L.A. County cities seize large amounts in civil forfeitures by Victoria Kim: A handful of small Los Angeles County cities seize large amounts of cash and cars using a controversial federal law that allows them to … Continue reading
Des Moines Register: Iowa forfeiture: A ‘system of legal thievery’?
Des Moines Register: Iowa forfeiture: A ‘system of legal thievery’? by Jason Clayworth and Grant Rodgers: A Des Moines Register investigation into the use of state and federal civil forfeiture laws in Iowa reveals that thousands of people have surrendered … Continue reading
WaPo: Holder announces new limits on civil asset forfeitures
WaPo: Holder announces new limits on civil asset forfeitures by Robert O’Harrow Jr.: Attorney General Eric H. Holder announced new curbs Tuesday on the government’s use of civil asset forfeiture laws, saying that federal authorities will only seize bank accounts … Continue reading
WaPo: New Mexico legislature passes sweeping bill to rein in forfeiture abuses
WaPo: Radley Balko: New Mexico legislature passes sweeping bill to rein in forfeiture abuses: State would require a criminal conviction for law enforcement to seize and keep property.
E.D.Tex.: Notice of forfeiture certified mail to jail is proper notice
Certified mail of notice of a forfeiture to the jail defendant was residing in was sufficient notice. A motion for return of property under Rule 41(g) has to be filed in the district where the property was seized, and this … Continue reading
IA: Even though defendant acquitted of drug crime, the state gets to forfeit his cash seized at the time
Defendant filed a motion to suppress a search and lost, but he was acquitted of the drug charge. The seizure of his cash in a separate action, however, was still subject to forfeiture. The stop was pretextual by a drug … Continue reading