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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: Police withhold videos despite vows of transparency
WaPo: Police withhold videos despite vows of transparency by Kimberly Kindy and Julie Tate: But officers investigated in fatal shootings are routinely given access to body camera footage.
CSMonitor: Does the spread of body cameras signal a rapid erosion of privacy?
CSMonitor: Does the spread of body cameras signal a rapid erosion of privacy? by Lucy Schouten: Ubiquitous surveillance has long been the stuff of speculative and dystopian fiction, but as use of body cameras by police rises, so do questions … Continue reading
WSJ: Video Helps Track Police Misconduct; Grievances Decline
WSJ: Video Helps Track Police Misconduct; Grievances Decline by Mark Morales: Footage of incidents in New York City both verified citizen complaints and, in other instances, exonerated officers.
Courthouse News Service: ACLU Asks Feds to Deny LAPD Camera Funds
Courthouse News Service: ACLU Asks Feds to Deny LAPD Camera Funds by Matt Reynolds: The ACLU says the Justice Department should deny federal funds for the LAPD’s body-camera program because of a policy that allows officials to review and withhold … Continue reading
NYTimes: After a Killing, Body Cameras Are Expanded in San Antonio
NYTimes: After a Killing, Body Cameras Are Expanded in San Antonio by Manny Fernandez: One day after a bystander’s cellphone video was released that appeared to show sheriff’s deputies fatally shooting a Hispanic man who had his hands raised in … Continue reading
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: Police cameras without transparency
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: Police cameras without transparency: Cops who don’t turn their cameras on when they’re supposed to need to be punished. Video needs to be made available to the public, albeit with certain provisions to protect … Continue reading
techdirt: DC Mayor Reverses Course On Body Cam Footage, Opens Up Recordings To Citizens And Researchers
techdirt: DC Mayor Reverses Course On Body Cam Footage, Opens Up Recordings To Citizens And Researchers by Tim Cushing: Back in April of this year, Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser sided with the city’s law enforcement against transparency and accountability. … Continue reading
Brennan Center For Justice: The Dystopian Danger of Police Body Cameras
Brennan Center For Justice: The Dystopian Danger of Police Body Cameras by Rachel Levinson-Waldman: Police-worn body cameras are the newest darling of criminal justice reform. They are touted as a way to collect evidence for criminal investigations, oversee and expose … Continue reading
Slate: The Hidden Bias of Cameras
Slate: The Hidden Bias of Cameras by Adam Benforado: Body and dashboard-mounted cameras used by police don’t give an objective account of the facts. Here’s how we should reform them.
WaPo: D.C. would release most police body camera footage under new plan
WaPo: D.C. would release most police body camera footage under new plan by Aaron C. Davis: Police in the nation’s capital would release more footage from body cameras than in any other major U.S. city under a plan from Mayor … Continue reading
HuffPo: It’s Almost Impossible To Tell If Police Camera Footage Has Been Edited
HuffPo: It’s Almost Impossible To Tell If Police Camera Footage Has Been Edited by Alexis Sobel Fitts: We trust video footage to offer an irrefutable account. But as more police departments around the country begin using cameras to document police … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Bodycam video shows that defendant did not consent to police entry during a knock-and-talk
Bodycam video shows that defendant did not consent to police entry during a knock-and-talk. It was mere acquiescence to a claim of authority. Inside they could smell marijuana. United States v. Rodriguez, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98292 (D.Neb. July 28, … Continue reading
Wired: Should Body-Cam Footage Always Go Public? It’s Complicated
Wired: Should Body-Cam Footage Always Go Public? It’s Complicated by Davey Alba: But the wide implementation of body cameras is complex, fraught with privacy concerns and questions over whether or not the content is a matter of public record, not … Continue reading
WSJ: NYPD Urged to Use Body Cameras More Often
WSJ: NYPD Urged to Use Body Cameras More Often by Mark Morales: Department inspector general’s review recommends officers turn on cameras more frequently. NYTimes: New York Police Should Revise Body Camera Rules, Report Says: Fifty-four police officers wear body cameras … Continue reading
AP: All New Jersey Troopers to Get Body Cameras Within a Year
AP: All New Jersey Troopers to Get Body Cameras Within a Year by Geoff Milvhill: New Jersey plans to put body cameras on all state troopers who work in the field and is issuing guidelines on how local police forces … Continue reading
Newsweek: U.S. Customs and Border Protection Weighs Using Body Cameras
Newsweek: U.S. Customs and Border Protection Weighs Using Body Cameras by Victoria Bekiempis: U.S. Customs and Border Protection could decide whether to have its officers and agents use body-worn cameras by the end of 2015, said CBP Assistant Chief Donna … Continue reading
Techdirt: Police Cameras Are Valuable… But Not If They Can Alter The Videos
Techdirt: Police Cameras Are Valuable… But Not If They Can Alter The Videos by Mike Masnick: We’ve talked plenty about the value of body cameras and dashcams for police — in acting as a deterrent to bad behavior by police … Continue reading
The Atlantic: Keep Body Cameras Off Public-School Educators
The Atlantic: Keep Body Cameras Off Public-School Educators by Conor Freidersdorf: An Iowa school district is among the first in the nation to outfit its principals with the devices.