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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)
--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: Body cameras
WSJ Blog: Professor Says Police Bodycam Study Suffers from ‘Fatal Flaw’
WSJ Blog: Professor Says Police Bodycam Study Suffers from ‘Fatal Flaw’ by Jacob Gershman: Law Blog last week reported on a provocative new study by Temple University researchers suggesting that police officers wearing body cameras are more likely to use … Continue reading
WSJ Blog: Study Links Police Bodycams to Increase in Shooting Deaths
WSJ Blog: Study Links Police Bodycams to Increase in Shooting Deaths by Jacob Gershman: In the wake of high-profile police shootings, the Obama administration has encouraged local police departments to equip their officers with body-worn cameras. The devices, said Attorney … Continue reading
Motherboard: Taser Plans to Livestream Police Body Camera Footage to the Cloud by 2017
Motherboard: Taser Plans to Livestream Police Body Camera Footage to the Cloud by 2017 by Matt Stroud: Could police officers someday identify criminals just by looking at them? That’s the vision being touted by Taser International, which holds a monopoly … Continue reading
NPR: State Laws Restrict Release Of Police Body Cam Footage
NPR: State Laws Restrict Release Of Police Body Cam Footage: NPR’s Robert Siegel interviews Nancy La Vigne, director of the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute, about a survey of state laws restricting the release of police body cam … Continue reading
Editorial: When it comes to police body cameras, the public can’t be kept in the dark
Editorial: When it comes to police body cameras, the public can’t be kept in the dark: Body-worn cameras are all the rage among police departments that are serious about accountability. But the tool is still so new that there’s little … Continue reading
Dashcam and bodycam undermine reasonable suspicion in two cases
These two make one wonder how many times officers have just fabricated reasonable suspicion and courts have bought it: The dashcam video supports the defendant’s argument that he was stopped without reasonable suspicion of driving with lights off when they … Continue reading
Police Technical: “free white paper, titled Body Worn Cameras: How They Impact the Law Enforcement Community”
“POLICE TECHNICAL has released a free white paper, titled Body Worn Cameras: How They Impact the Law Enforcement Community.”
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: Once again, body cameras are only as good as the policies that come with them
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: Once again, body cameras are only as good as the policies that come with them by Radley Balko: The takeaway from this study is not that body cameras fail to minimize violence between police and citizens, … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Only one of three officers saw gun under streetlight; credibility here goes to the officer and why
Three officers were on patrol and only one saw defendant allegedly remove a chrome gun from one pocket and the glint of a streetlight off the gun. Defendant provided an affidavit that he never pulled the gun out, but he … Continue reading
The Atlantic: The Outrage of Body-Cavity Searches
The Atlantic: The Outrage of Body-Cavity Searches by Conor Friedersdorf: Americans routinely turn away from systematic violations of civil rights when they are perpetrated in the guise of fighting the war on drugs.
NYTimes: Police Body Cameras: What Do You See?
NYTimes: Police Body Cameras: What Do You See? by Timothy Williams, James Thomas, Samuel Jacoby, and Damien Cave: Public frustration with policing has led to calls nationwide for more cameras worn by officers. But what do those cameras actually reveal?
Miami-Herald: Police body-cam recording of defense attorney causes stir in Miami-Dade
Miami-Herald: Police body-cam recording of defense attorney causes stir in Miami-Dade by David Ovalle: A Miami Beach cop, worried about his words being twisted at trial, recently used his newly outfitted “body camera” to record a hallway interview by a … Continue reading
Legal Intelligencer: Pa. Justices to Grapple With Public Access to Police Footage
Legal Intelligencer: Pa. Justices to Grapple With Public Access to Police Footage by Ben Seal: As a national conversation continues over the relationship between law enforcement and the public, sparked by videos of incidents of police brutality, the Pennsylvania Supreme … Continue reading
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: Police cameras are a tool. It’s how we use this tool that matters.
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: Police cameras are a tool. It’s how we use this tool that matters by Radley Balko: There’s little question that police body cameras and dashboard cameras offer added transparency. They offer an independent narrative of disputed … Continue reading
Charlotte Observer: NC police agencies block body-cam footage from public view
Charlotte Observer: NC police agencies block body-cam footage from public view by Cleve R. Wootson Jr.: Seven Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers surrounded a man lying on the ground – a suspect detained in a hit-and-run wreck. One officer raised his fist … Continue reading
WSJ: After Ferguson, Cities Face a Body-Cam Dilemma
WSJ: After Ferguson, Cities Face a Body-Cam Dilemma by Dan Frosch and Zusha Elinson: In arming police with video devices, some cities face friction for acting fast American cities rushed to provide police departments with body cameras, spurred by public … Continue reading
WaPo: What do we know about police body cameras? Survey says: Not much
WaPo: What do we know about police body cameras? Survey says: Not much by Tom Jackman …[W]hat research has been done on the overall effect of police body cameras? Do they change an officer’s behavior? Do people on camera behave … Continue reading
Colorado Public Radio: Police Body Camera Recommendations Head To Lawmakers
Colorado Public Radio: Police Body Camera Recommendations Head To Lawmakers by Rachel Estabrook: A group studying how police should use body cameras has released its recommendations to Colorado legislators, including guidance on when the devices should be turned on and … Continue reading
Voice of San Diego: Watchdog Group Urges Sheriff to Tweak New Body Camera Policies
Voice of San Diego: Watchdog Group Urges Sheriff to Tweak New Body Camera Policies by Kelly Davis: When should an officer be allowed to review body camera footage? Before writing an incident report or after?
St. Louis Public Radio: Missouri bill would define open records access for police cameras
St. Louis Public Radio: Missouri bill would define open records access for police cameras by Camille Phillips: A Kansas City-area Republican is sponsoring a bill that would set limits on when police camera footage is public record in Missouri. The … Continue reading