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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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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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General (many free):
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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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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Section 1983 Blog -
"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) -
“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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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, Little Rock 
Category Archives: Computer and cloud searches
MO: Warrantless seizure of black box data from semi violated 4A; automobile exception didn’t apply
After an accident, the information off the data recorder on defendant’s semi was seized and then searched by the police without a search warrant. The trial court suppressed, and the state filed an interlocutory appeal. Only three of its six … Continue reading
CA2: SW for computers doesn’t require they be specifically identified
The Fourth Amendment does not require that a search warrant for computers specifically identify them [because that’s not possible]. A search warrant to seize computers permits their search under Rule 41. United States v. Beal, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 9056 … Continue reading
ABAJ: North Carolina police issue broad warrants for data from Google users near crime scenes
ABAJ: North Carolina police issue broad warrants for data from Google users near crime scenes by Jason Tashea:
N.D.Cal.: Court orders target to open computer and phones under All Writs Act; no privilege bars order
Police seized a computer, hard drive, and iPhone that had been encrypted and password protected. The FBI couldn’t get in. The government applies for an order under the All Writs Act. The court finds that the Fifth Amendment testimonial privilege … Continue reading
Daily Beast: Fitbit Could Prove a Man’s Innocence. Google Could Send Another to Prison for Murder
Daily Beast: Fitbit Could Prove a Man’s Innocence. Google Could Send Another to Prison for Murder by Kate Briquelet: A troubled boyfriend. A hard-drinking felon. And a young mom bludgeoned to death steps from her own home. Now smart technologies … Continue reading
wccftech: Sony Starts Sharing PlayStation 4 Data with the FBI – Begins with a Terror Investigation
wccftech: Sony Starts Sharing PlayStation 4 Data with the FBI – Begins with a Terror Investigation by Rafia Shaikh:
Cato: The Fourth Amendment Still Applies Online
Cato: The Fourth Amendment Still Applies Online by Ilya Shapiro and Aaron Barnes:
ABAJ: Traveling lawyers get new protections in device searches at border
ABAJ: Traveling lawyers get new protections in device searches at border by Lee Rawles. The ABA is meeting soon in Vancouver. What about protecting privileged information at Customs when they return:
Law.com: California High Court Takes Up Criminal Defendant’s Bid for Private Facebook Posts
Law.com: California High Court Takes Up Criminal Defendant’s Bid for Private Facebook Posts by Ross Todd: The California Supreme Court has taken up a case that could determine if, how and when Facebook must turn over private user information about … Continue reading
NYLJ: Judge Urges Action to Curb ‘Overbroad’ Digital Search Warrants
NYLJ: Judge Urges Action to Curb ‘Overbroad’ Digital Search Warrants by Andrew Denney: Overbroad search warrants for digital evidence are “all too common” in New York, are often green-lighted by busy judges who are focused on processing motions and are … Continue reading
CA6: Computers, like guns, are usually kept at home, and that’s nexus for search of house for a computer [!?]
A computer, like a gun, is usually kept in the home, and a search warrant for a computer establishes nexus to search defendant’s house[!, really?]. Thus, there was no Fourth Amendment violation and alternatively there was qualified immunity. Peffer v. … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Facebook SW failed to show nexus to alleged hate crime, but GFE applies
Defendant is charged with a hate crime, and the government believed that he was involved with a group. The search warrant for his Facebook account failed to show nexus to get access to the non-public pages just because the group … Continue reading
Just Security: Customs and Border Protection’s New Policy for Searching Devices Offers Thin Protection
Just Security: Customs and Border Protection’s New Policy for Searching Devices Offers Thin Protection by Carrie DeCell:
DC Inauguration protestor Facebook and email warrant case now on Lexis
In the DC protestor Facebook litigation, the trial court’s order finally appears on Lexis, but I did find links to the opinions elsewhere. In the Matter of the Search of Information Associated with Facebook Accounts disruptj20, lacymacauley, and legba.carrefour That … Continue reading
NYTimes: Cellphone and Computer Searches at U.S. Border Rise Under Trump
NYTimes: Cellphone and Computer Searches at U.S. Border Rise Under Trump by Ron Nixon:
M.D.La.: Finding CP image hash values on a computer is PC for search
The finding of child pornography hash values on a computer is probable cause for further search of the computer. United States v. Sherlock, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1321 (M.D. La. Jan. 4, 2018).* Playpen warrant sustained, and there was no … Continue reading
ID: Failure to repeat “computer” in SW for things to be seized wasn’t a violation of 4A; CA7 typo in LPN can be overlooked
The preamble of the search warrant listed a bunch of digital things to search for and seize but the specific search clause didn’t include “computer.” The search warrant as a whole included computers, and defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not … Continue reading
VA: P2P file sharing to access CP wasn’t a trespass on the curtilage; def consented to entry into the computer
The officer’s actions in accessing defendant’s computer files by peer-to-peer file sharing did not constitute a trespass to his curtilage in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Defendant demonstrated his consensual participation in the file sharing community by installing file sharing … Continue reading
PA: Telling computer repair person to move files to a new hard drive was a waiver of REP
Defendant essentially waived his reasonable expectation of privacy in his computer hard drive when he took it in for repair, was told that the hard drive was failing and he needed a new one, and then directed them to move … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Search of house for drug trafficking revealed a surveillance system and DVR; it was reasonable to conclude evidence of trafficking would be on it too for a separate SW
When executing a search warrant for drugs and guns, founded on a strong showing of probable cause, and the police finding pounds of methamphetamine and multiple firearms, discovery of surveillance cameras and a DVR not connected to a satellite or … Continue reading