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Recent Posts
- CA8: Admission of anonymous tip that led to stop violated Confrontation Clause
- CO: Anonymous report of student smoking pot in school justified backpack search
- CA6: CI’s lie to get into def’s house to video him making a drug deal with the CI didn’t violate 4A
- TN: Def lived in a van left wide open in a public area, but it didn’t belong to him, so no REP as to interior
- VI: Despite ubiquity of cell phones, nexus has to be shown to alleged crime
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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: Administrative search
CA7: Cigarette sales in Chicago is “closely regulated” and subject to inspection
The sale of cigarettes in Chicago has been closely regulated since 1941 and required a license since 1900. Defendant was a prior offender of the ordinance in selling untaxed or individual cigarettes, and the city decided to inspect the cigarettes … Continue reading
NY3: Admin. search for counterfeit cigarette tax stamps was factually justified and reasonable
“Inasmuch as defendant was ‘operating a retail outlet where cigarettes were sold openly and notoriously[, the investigators were authorized] … to enter the premises and inspect the cigarettes for possible fraudulent stamping.’” They can’t forcibly enter, but they can insist … Continue reading
WaPo: Battling the modern American administrative state
WaPo: Battling the modern American administrative state by George Will: As the administrative state distorts the United States’ constitutional architecture, Clarence Thomas becomes America’s indispensable constitutionalist. Now in his 25th year on the Supreme Court, he is urging the judicial … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Asbestos inspector’s entry under state Dept. Labor rule governed by Krull good faith; subsequent warrant not tainted in any event
Defendant was charged with violations of the Clean Air Act for removing asbestos from a construction site without notice to the government. A NYS Dept. of Labor inspector entered the gated property without consent when temporary workers were there because … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Pretextual administrative search of liquor permitted premises still valid, and SW had plenty of PC despite that
Defendant’s store in Brooklyn was a front for a cocaine operation. The store also had a liquor license. The government developed substantial probable cause, yet first entered the store to conduct an administrative inspection of the permitted premises. A subsequent … Continue reading
S.D.Ala.: The Coast Guard had authority to board a moored ship to conduct an oil dumping investigation; a complete search occurred after PC developed
A whistleblower contacted the Coast Guard that his oil tanker he was on approaching Mobile had been oil dumping. The Coast Guard boarded the ship when it was docked and conducted an inspection of the engine room and common areas. … Continue reading
CA1: Gaming machines outside casinos also highly regulated industry by state law
Gaming machines outside casinos in Puerto Rico, Adult Entertainment Machines, are within a scheme of highly regulated businesses, as is gambling there in general, for the purposes of Burger. Therefore, the Commonwealth was within its power to inspect and seize … Continue reading
Slate: Judge Allows Strip Club’s Constitutional Case Against Police Raids to Move Forward
Slate: Judge Allows Strip Club’s Constitutional Case Against Police Raids to Move Forward by Mark Joseph Stern: As the Supreme Court recently reminded us, “the Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach”—including strip clubs, which, like most private property, … Continue reading
MS: Rental inspection warrant ordinance unconstitutional for no PC requirement
Madison’s rental inspection warrant system violates the Fourth Amendment because the ordinance does not require that the warrant issue on probable cause of a potential violation. Crook v. City of Madison, 2015 Miss. LEXIS 352 (July 2, 2015):
SCOTUS decides City of Los Angeles v. Patel: A hotel has a Fourth Amendment right to precompliance review of records production; a hotel is not a closely regulated industry
City of Los Angeles v. Patel, 2015 U.S. LEXIS 4065 (June 22, 2015) (5-4). [News links at end.] Syllabus: Petitioner, the city of Los Angeles (City), requires hotel operators to record and keep specific information about their guests on the … Continue reading
NY Bronx: Pawnbrokers can’t be compelled to upload all their acquisition information; becomes a general search without restraint
While pawnbrokers are regulated, they can’t be compelled to upload all their information about acquisitions into a database to make the NYPD’s job easier. What is to be uploaded is too broad, and that’s a general search. Collateral Loanbrokers Assn. … Continue reading
CA3: The porn industry is not “closely regulated” to permit warrantless records inspections of ages of performers
The inspection requirement of 18 U.S.C. § 2257A on porn actors age records fails the Fourth Amendment because there is nothing in the language of the statute that makes manufacture of pornography “highly regulated” for administrative inspections. The record keeping … Continue reading
Cal.3: “Reason to believe” in administrative search law means same as PC
Treating an examination of an insurance company’s unclaimed property as an administrative search, “reason to believe” in the California unclaimed property law is no greater than probable cause to get a search warrant, following Lincoln Bank & Trust Co. v. … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog: Argument summary: How does requiring a warrant interfere with surprise police searches of hotel guest registers?
SCOTUSBlog: Argument summary: How does requiring a warrant interfere with surprise police searches of hotel guest registers? by Rory Little: The first case argued Tuesday morning, City of Los Angeles v. Patel, was about whether a Los Angeles ordinance that … Continue reading
MA: Fire scene search was moot point since issue was lack of smoke detectors found in inspections up to day before fire; changing argument on appeal is waiver
Defendants were convicted of manslaughter in the deaths of three tenants in a fire in their house converted to apartments. There were numerous code violations, including lack of smoke detectors and enough exits, discovered as a result of a tenant … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: DEA pharmacy subpoena not overbroad and HIPAA exempt
Two related opinions, same day same case: DEA administrative subpoena does not need to be based on probable cause to be enforceable. It can be overbroad and burdensome, but the government agreed to limit this one. United States v. Zadeh, … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Dual motive stop of truck for NAS level III safety inspection and looking for drugs was valid
An administrative stop of a tractor trailer for an NAS level III safety inspection with the dual motive of looking for drugs is valid. United States v. Orozco, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10190 (D.Nev. January 28, 2015):
OH12: LEO use of the Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System does not violate any reasonable expectation of privacy
Law enforcement use of the Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System does not violate any reasonable expectation of privacy or the doctor-patient privilege. Here, a police officer was investigated for doctor shopping to obtain schedule III and IV drugs from multiple … Continue reading
City AM: Uber has five out of six bases in New York City suspended after failing to hand over trip records
City AM: Uber has five out of six bases in New York City suspended after failing to hand over trip records by Guy Bentley: New York City has suspended the majority of Uber bases after the taxi app company refused … Continue reading