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- IN: Overdose call led to EMS telling police what they saw and that led to SW
- NY1: A mental health defense waives REP in the medical records about it
- MA: When a likely Franks violation comes out at trial, def gets to reopen the suppression issue
- RI: Challenge to one sentence of 8-page cell phone records SW fails; totality has to be considered
- WaPo: Subpoena bill would curtail secretive tool used to target government critics
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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)
--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. 
Monthly Archives: January 2023
CA7: Ptf’s civil Franks claim survives SJ because it stated a claim
“Here, a reasonable jury could find that Buonadonna intentionally or recklessly included material false statements and withheld material exculpatory information. Buonadonna admits that he read the protective order and knew that it did not bar communication between Klein and Salatas. … Continue reading
IL: Officers executing SW lawfully seized gun in plain view
The trial court erred in suppressing evidence. The officers were lawfully on the premises with a warrant when a gun was seen in plain view. People v. Serrato, 2023 IL App (2d) 220100, 2023 Ill. App. LEXIS 3 (Jan. 6, … Continue reading
CA5: No suppression for no-knock violation
There is no suppression remedy for an unjustified no-knock warrant. United States v. Bryant, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 355 (5th Cir. Jan. 6, 2023). Defendant didn’t enter a conditional plea, so his guilty plea waived his Fourth Amendment claim. United … Continue reading
CA6: Govt completely failed to show nexus or PC thus no GFE
The affidavits supporting the records warrant for defendant’s home did not establish nexus between his alleged drug activity, drug records, and his address. Also, the affidavit did not allege that defendant dealt drugs from the house or that he even … Continue reading
Army: Remotely wiping seized cell phone and watch tampered with search
The prosecution established defendant interfered with a search by remotely wiping her cell phone and watch when she knew they were in the possession of CID and to be searched in a manslaughter investigation. United States v. Strong, 2023 CCA … Continue reading
Intelligencer: Amazon’s New Car Cam Takes Personal Surveillance on the Road
Intelligencer: Amazon’s New Car Cam Takes Personal Surveillance on the Road by John Hermann (“Amazon on Thursday opened preorders for a long-awaited addition to its vast catalogue of Ring personal surveillance devices: the Car Cam. Starting at $200, the car … Continue reading
CA6: Plastic bag on car console wasn’t obviously “dope” to justify automobile exception
The government argued that the search of defendant’s car was justified by the automobile exception because contraband was in plain view. The court disagrees. There was a plastic bag on the console, and the photographic evidence from inside the car … Continue reading
S.D.Cal.: Databases checked by probation officers showed def was still on probation before probation search; GFE applies
Defendant claimed his probation search was unreasonable because he was off probation when the search occurred. All the evidence, however, shows that the officers acted in good faith because they checked databases, and it all showed he was still on … Continue reading
SC Const. search and seizure and privacy provision protects abortion rights; Idaho says theirs doesn’t
The state 1971 constitutional amendment recognizing a right to privacy was really enacting what the people always believed about privacy. It provides: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: City’s destruction of street cam video was not shown to be in bad faith
Defendant’s motion to dismiss for a discovery violation in not timely processing a subpoena for a street corner camera that allegedly would show that defendant’s turn signal was on and the stop was wrong is denied. The city didn’t timely … Continue reading
CA8: PC parolee home is required for a parole search
Probable cause, not reasonable suspicion, is required for belief the parolee is at his residence for a parole search. Surveys conflicting authorities, even from the same district court. United States v. Thabit, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 169 (8th Cir. Jan. … Continue reading
techdirt: Government Continues To Rely On Private Contractors To Bypass Privacy Protections
techdirt: Government Continues To Rely On Private Contractors To Bypass Privacy Protections by Tim Cushing (“There’s only so much domestic surveillance the government can engage in before it starts running into problems. The Supreme Court’s Carpenter decision strongly suggested gathering … Continue reading
D.Mass.: No REP in video surveillance in an apartment building hallway that covered def’s door
“Defendants may have held a subjective expectation that activity in and around the doorway of the apartment would remain private but such an expectation was not objectively reasonable because their activity took place in a common area exposed to the … Continue reading
GA: Generalizations and experience do not support no-knock warrant
The no-knock provision in this search warrant was not based on a showing of necessity based on this case. It was based on experience and generalities. [In addition, defendant was supposedly standing in the front yard, so what about the … Continue reading
FL4: Suppression of arrest exceeded the relief def sought and is reversed
Defendant’s motion to suppress did not put the state on notice that he was seeking to suppress the result of his arrest. The trial court erred in granting that relief. State v. Bender, 2023 Fla. App. LEXIS 27 (Fla. 4th … Continue reading
Did a Tesla rat out its owner?
LATimes: Driver of Tesla that plunged off Northern California cliff arrested; CHP calls crash intentional After examining evidence, investigators “developed probable cause to believe this incident was an intentional act,” and placed Patel under arrest, according to the CHP. Authorities … Continue reading