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Recent Posts
- CA7: Scrolling through def’s cell phone was a reasonable border search
- E.D.Ark.: Bivens not extended to knock-and-announce violation and shooting; FTCA applies instead
- D.Mont.: This ping warrant was based on PC and was not governed by Chatrie
- KY: Unrelated questions during ongoing traffic stop didn’t extend it under Rodriguez
- TX1: Defendant had no REP in a package of drugs he never possessed and on another person
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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)
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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: Privileges
D.Idaho: Def can be forced to use finger on Touch ID feature to open phone
The USMJ denied an order to compel the target to use the “Touch ID” feature of his cell phone to open it. On appeal to the USDJ, surveying the cases, the court orders the target to use his finger because … Continue reading
SF Chronicle: Jeff Adachi case: Judge quashes SFPD warrant used to search journalist’s phone
SF Chronicle: Jeff Adachi case: Judge quashes SFPD warrant used to search journalist’s phone by Megan Cassidy: A judge on Thursday quashed a search warrant used by San Francisco police to search a journalist’s phone in what was part of … Continue reading
NY3: Evidence seized from defense counsel was not privileged because of crime-fraud exception
Somehow, papers were seized [or obtained] from the county public defender in the case [without explanation, which is not uncommon in New York appellate cases], and defendant claimed attorney-client privilege. The court finds the crime-fraud exception applies, and what was … Continue reading
ATL: The Difference Between Bryan Carmody And Julian Assange
ATL: The Difference Between Bryan Carmody And Julian Assange by Tyler Broker:
N.D.Cal.: Govt bears burden of showing attachment limiting search was actually attached, and it failed
For the government to rely on the good faith exception by claiming the attachment limiting the warrant was attached to the search warrant, it bears the burden of showing that, and it didn’t. United States v. Chang, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
OH7: No REP in police interrogation room; conversation with wife after statement to police recorded
Defendant gave a statement to the police and then he was left alone in the interrogation room to talk to his wife for 40 minutes. Police recorded the conversation. There was no reasonable expectation of privacy in the room, and, … Continue reading
TheAppeal.org: ‘Do Not Record’
TheAppeal.org: ‘Do Not Record’ by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg: Phone calls between prisoners in Orange County and their lawyers were recorded and accessed. How wide the eavesdropping was remains an open question. . . .
FL1: Recognizing conflict in many courts on compelled password production, court takes a middle ground: state must show what it wants with “reasonable particularity”
“To what extent does the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination protect a suspect in a criminal case from the compelled disclosure of a password to an electronic communications device in the state’s possession? Courts differ in their legal analysis of … Continue reading
NACDL Fourth Amendment Center: Compelled Decryption Primer
NACDL Fourth Amendment Center: Compelled Decryption Primer:
NBC: Give up your password or go to jail: Police push legal boundaries to get into cellphones
NBC: Give up your password or go to jail: Police push legal boundaries to get into cellphones by John Schuppe: “The world should know that what they’re doing out here is crazy,” said a man who refused to share his … Continue reading
NPR: Political Fallout Escalates After SF Police Raid Journalist’s Office
NPR: Political Fallout Escalates After SF Police Raid Journalist’s Office by Sonja Hutson: The San Francisco Police Officers’ Association is calling on the chief of police to resign for his handling of a raid on a reporter’s home. The reporter … Continue reading
NYTimes: San Francisco Police Chief Apologizes for Raid of Journalist’s Home
NYTimes: San Francisco Police Chief Apologizes for Raid of Journalist’s Home by Sandra E. Garcia: The chief of the San Francisco Police Department apologized on Friday for a police raid at the home of a Bay Area freelance journalist in … Continue reading
The Hill: Does your district attorney have access to your medical records?
The Hill: Does your district attorney have access to your medical records? by David Siegel: The latest attempts to criminalize women’s health care will demand that every Alabaman woman share their medical records with their local district attorney. Sound fishy?
Conservative HQ: Obama-Appointed Judge Allows Democrats To Subpoena Trump Business Records [a 2019 political take on the third-party doctrine]; opinion
Conservative HQ: Obama-Appointed Judge Allows Democrats To Subpoena Trump Business Records. In a ruling that should chill the heart of every American who values his Fourth Amendment rights, Obama-appointed DC District Court Judge Amit Mehta has refused to quash a … Continue reading
Observer: NJ Supreme Court Will Determine Whether Cops Can Force You to Unlock Your Mobile Device
Observer: NJ Supreme Court Will Determine Whether Cops Can Force You to Unlock Your Mobile Device by Donald Scarinci:
D.Conn.: Nexus shown by def going home after three controlled buys
Nexus and probable cause are shown to defendant’s house by the fact he went back to his house from three controlled buys. United States v. Stewart, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78376 (D. Conn. May 9, 2019). Having pled guilty to … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Forced use of fingerprint biometric to unlock a smartphone violates 5A
The district court granted the initial search warrant based on the showing of probable cause, but then it denied a second application to force the owner to open it. The compelled use of biometrics to unlock the phone violates the … Continue reading
NJLJ: Must a Criminal Defendant Turn Over Cellphone Passwords? NJ Supreme Court Will Decide
NJLJ: Must a Criminal Defendant Turn Over Cellphone Passwords? NJ Supreme Court Will Decide by Suzette Parmley:
Just Security: Split Over Compelled Decryption Deepens With Massachusetts Case
Just Security: Split Over Compelled Decryption Deepens With Massachusetts Case by Michael Price and Zach Simonetti: