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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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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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"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: Body cameras
WaPo: These videos of a Texas police shooting show how body cameras can vindicate good cops
WaPo: These videos of a Texas police shooting show how body cameras can vindicate good cops by Radley Balko: The two disturbing videos below depict the fatal police shooting of James Bushey, 47, of Elkhart, Tex. The videos are taken … Continue reading
NY Post: NYPD looks to add thousands of new body cameras
NY Post: NYPD looks to add thousands of new body cameras by Shawn Cohen and Daniel Prendergast: The NYPD is looking to substantially expand its body-camera pilot program by buying another 5,000 devices, officials said Monday. The department recently began … Continue reading
JD Supra: Law Enforcement in the 21st Century: How The Courts Are Responding
JD Supra: Law Enforcement in the 21st Century: How The Courts Are Responding by Tamara Bogosian: The world of law enforcement is changing rapidly. In the last few years, technology has advanced by leaps and bounds altering the way police … Continue reading
WaPo: Five myths about body cameras
WaPo: Five myths about body cameras by Nancy La Vigne: Body cameras aren’t new, but since the spate of high-profile violent encounters between police and unarmed citizens — Michael Brown, Chris Lollie, Eric Garner, Marlene Pinnock and others — they’ve … Continue reading
Inside Edition: Cameras capture police throwing 8-month pregnant woman to the ground, handcuffing and arresting her
Inside Edition: Cameras capture police throwing 8-month pregnant woman to the ground, handcuffing and arresting her
WaPo: Model legislation for police body cameras
WaPo: Model legislation for police body cameras by Radley Balko The ACLU’s ideal bill strikes the right balance between privacy and transparency.
Photography Is Not A Crime (PINAC) — Police behaving badly
Photography Is Not A Crime (PINAC) has been cited here before, but a link on the internet took me there again today, and I perused it for a while, finding many interesting citizen-made videos of cops going overboard. One from … Continue reading
On The Media: The Police Body Cam Conundrum
On The Media: The Police Body Cam Conundrum: There is overwhelming support to outfit the nation’s cops with body cameras. Theoretically, they promote accountability and transparency, but in practice it’s much more complicated.
WaPo: Justice Dept. will spend $20 million on police body cameras nationwide
WaPo: Justice Dept. will spend $20 million on police body cameras nationwide by Mark Berman: The Department of Justice plans to launch a pilot program aimed at expanding the use of body cameras worn by police officers across the country. … Continue reading
The Atlantic: “Thank God for Cellphone Video Cameras”
The Atlantic: “Thank God for Cellphone Video Cameras” by Robinson Meyer: The vast technological change which has helped make a movement possible.
The Atlantic: What Good Is a Video You Can’t See?
The Atlantic: What Good Is a Video You Can’t See? by Robinson Meyer: Police body cameras are meant to be a tool of public accountability. But even experts can’t agree on how to make sure that happens.
NY Times: Downside of Police Body Cameras: Your Arrest Hits YouTube
NY Times: Downside of Police Body Cameras: Your Arrest Hits YouTube by Timothy Williams: Police departments around the country have been moving with unusual speed to equip officers with body cameras to film their often edgy encounters with the public. … Continue reading
WaPo: As police body cameras catch on, a debate surfaces: Who gets to watch?
WaPo: As police body cameras catch on, a debate surfaces: Who gets to watch? by Peter Hermann and Aaron C. Davis:
HuffPo: D.C. Mayor Doesn’t Want You To See Police Body Camera Footage
HuffPo: D.C. Mayor Doesn’t Want You To See Police Body Camera Footage by Jason Cherkis: After this month’s police killing of Walter Scott in South Carolina, Americans were treated to another lesson in how police departments can spin such incidents. … Continue reading
NPR: Seattle Police Body Camera Program Highlights Unexpected Issues
NPR: Seattle Police Body Camera Program Highlights Unexpected Issues: NPR’s Audie Cornish talks with the Seattle Police Department’s Chief Operating Officer Mike Wagers about the challenges that bodycams and dashcams present to the department. In addition to figuring out how … Continue reading
EFF: Police Must Respect the Right of Citizens to Record Them
EFF: Police Must Respect the Right of Citizens to Record Them by Sophia Cope: “I’m asking all the citizens of North Charleston to continue taping.” That is what Councilwoman Dorothy Williams said in response to the shooting death of Walter … Continue reading