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- CA7: Scrolling through def’s cell phone was a reasonable border search
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- 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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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
FL1 certifies to the FL S.Ct. whether the password to a cell phone is protected by the 5A
FL1 certifies to the FL S.Ct. whether the password to a cell phone is protected by the Fifth Amendment. Pollard v. State, 2019 Fla. App. LEXIS 18978 (Fla. 3d DCA Dec. 23, 2019): What is the proper legal inquiry when … Continue reading
Bloomberg Law: New Appeals Test for Medical Prescription Warrantless Searches
Bloomberg Law: New Appeals Test for Medical Prescription Warrantless Searches by John Nancarrow (“A federal appeals court could rule anytime on whether law enforcement needs a warrant to access information on people’s prescription drug use from state databases—a case that’s … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Morocco can sue under the Vienna Convention, but its request for relief from a search of phones of two consular employees is denied without prejudice
The Kingdom of Morocco waived consular inviolability for a search warrant for alleged visa fraud by two of its employees in NYC on whom criminal complaints had been filed. Cell phones were seized. Morocco sought to intervene in grand jury … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Compelled use of biometrics to open a cell phone doesn’t violate 4A or 5A
“[T]his Court holds that compelling an individual to scan their biometrics, and in particular their fingerprints, to unlock a smartphone device neither violates the Fourth nor Fifth Amendment. Accordingly, the Court has signed and authorized the government’s warrant, including the … Continue reading
PA: State’s seeking the passcode to unencrypt a computer hard drive violates the 5A
The state’s seeking the passcode to unencrypt a computer hard drive violates the Fifth Amendment. Commonwealth v. Davis, 2019 Pa. LEXIS 6463 (Nov. 20, 2019):
CA4: “Filter Team” of govt agents and AUSAs violated separation of powers and A-C privilege
The USMJ’s ex parte creation of a “Filter Team” of federal agents and prosecutors to review the seizure of records from a law firm under a search warrant violates separation of powers and doesn’t adequately protect attorney-client privilege and work … Continue reading
OR: Order to produce passcode to an iPhone seeks testimonial evidence
Defendant was held in contempt for not providing the passcode to access his cell phone. The court of appeals affirms. Entering a passcode into a smartphone is testimonial in nature. The Fifth Amendment’s foregone conclusion doctrine as to knowledge of … Continue reading
Felony charges in Alameda Co. for LEO recording call between juvenile suspects and their lawyers
SF Chronicle: Judge moves forward felony eavesdropping case against Alameda sheriff’s sergeant by Megan Cassidy (“A judge on Tuesday denied an Alameda County Sheriff’s sergeant’s request to reduce his four felony eavesdropping charges to misdemeanors and moved the case forward … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Order to use biometric information to unlock a device is testimonial and barred by 5A
A USMJ in the N.D.Cal. holds that the use of a court order to compel any biometric information (fingerprint, facial recognition, eye scan) is testimonial and violates the Fifth Amendment. United States v. Sealed Warrant, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147836 … Continue reading
CA4: USMJ must review law firm’s seized privileged materials, not USAO’s “filter team”
Two days after oral argument on a law firm’s appeal that a USMJ reviewed privileged materials seized from the firm by search warrant and not the USAO’s “filter team,” the Fourth Circuit orders the Magistrate to do it pending issuance … Continue reading
WaPo: DEA, IRS reviewed cache of emails amid ongoing criminal probe into Baltimore lawyers
WaPo: DEA, IRS reviewed cache of emails amid ongoing criminal probe into Baltimore lawyers by Tim Prudente:
Courthouse News Service: Fourth Circuit Takes Up Secretive Raid on Law Firm
Courthouse News Service: Fourth Circuit Takes Up Secretive Raid on Law Firm by Brad Kutner:
N.D.Cal.: Compelled use of fingerprint to open cell phone not testimonial
The court at first declined to sign a search warrant for a cell phone that compelled use of a fingerprint to unlock it. After further submissions from the USAO and the FPD as invited amicus, the court concludes that a … Continue reading
FL5: Existence of SW for BAC record in hospital overcame supboena without notice in violation of statute
Defendant’s BAC level was obtain by subpoena without notice contrary to statute, but they were also obtained by search warrant so they would not be suppressed. The search warrant was particular enough. Dinkins v. State, 2019 Fla. App. LEXIS 12923 … Continue reading
CNS: Final Warrant Targeting Journalist Deemed Illegal by Judge
Courthouse News Service: Final Warrant Targeting Journalist Deemed Illegal by Judge by Nicholas Iovino:
D.Kan.: USAO in Kansas in contempt for handling litigation over recording attorney-client jail calls
Not a Fourth Amendment case at this point of the litigation, but extremely interesting to everybody in the criminal justice system, including jailers, is United States v. Carter, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137728 (D. Kan. Aug. 13, 2019), where there … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Seizure of 21 privileged documents out of 1.3M wasn’t a 4A or privilege violation
The government seized 1.3M documents, and 21 apparently were privileged. This doesn’t show that the government was willful disregarding the warrant or the need to protect privileged materials. His iPhone and laptop were properly seized by plain view then subjected … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service: Journalist’s Phone Data Was Used to Justify Home, Office Raids
Courthouse News Service: Journalist’s Phone Data Was Used to Justify Home, Office Raids by Nicholas Iovino: Police used records of a journalist’s private communications with a confidential source, obtained by a now-quashed search warrant, to secure permission to raid the … Continue reading
CA4: Def’s unlocking cell phone without sharing passcode was not communicative act
The officer who had defendant’s cell phone asked her to unlock it. She entered the passcode without sharing it or him seeing her do it. It wasn’t a communicative act. It’s like providing a key. Her motion to suppress the … Continue reading
WaPo:Analysis: The Trump administration wants to be able to break into your encrypted data. Here’s what you need to know.
WaPo:Analysis: The Trump administration wants to be able to break into your encrypted data. Here’s what you need to know. By Tim Maurer and Garrett Hinck: And so do governments around the world.