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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 -
Latest Slip Opinions:
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FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
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Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
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General (many free):
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www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
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)
ACLU on privacy
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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
GA: Giving computer password out gives recipient apparent authority to consent
Giving one’s wife the password to the computer showed that she had apparent authority to consent to its search. Massey v. State, 2019 Ga. App. LEXIS 267 (May 21, 2019). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not pursuing a motion to … Continue reading
CA6: Date of receipt of CP isn’t a limit on the scope of a SW
In a child pornography investigation, the date of the alleged obtaining the child porn doesn’t limit the scope of the search warrant. Moreover, the fact it was known to be on one device does mean that only that device can … Continue reading
CA10: SW for computer fraud revealed CP; inevitable discovery applied
While executing a computer fraud search warrant on defendant’s computers they happened upon child pornography on CDs during the onsite search. They took the computers and the CDs with the child pornography. A later search warrant was issued for the … Continue reading
D.N.M.: SW for CP in house didn’t need to identify the person who was the target of the search
Officers had probable cause that child pornography came from a particular IP address that was linked to a street address. The search warrant was properly issued for the entire premises, and it did not need to list the target of … Continue reading
CPO Magazine: EPIC Alleges Google May Be Helping US Government Conduct Warrantless Searches
CPO Magazine: EPIC Alleges Google May Be Helping US Government Conduct Warrantless Searches by Nicole Lindsey
Forbes: Utah Bans Police From Searching Digital Data Without A Warrant, Closes Fourth Amendment Loophole
Forbes: Utah Bans Police From Searching Digital Data Without A Warrant, Closes Fourth Amendment Loophole by Nick Sibilla:
AK: SW for all computer stuff in house associated with IP address was reasonable in child porn case
A child pornography search warrant for all computer stuff in the house associated with a particular IP address wasn’t directed at defendant–it was for the IP address to identify the potential user. Seizing all computer related stuff in the house … Continue reading
D.S.C.: Tracking cookies cannot be compared to CSLI under Carpenter
Tracking cookies have a commercial purpose, and they cannot remotely be compared to CSLI under Carpenter. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy tracking cookies won’t be used by websites. Motion to dismiss granted. Johnson v. Google, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
NY2: No REP in a computer open on a P2P network
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a computer open to the world on a P2P network and anybody can come into. People v. Worrell, 2019 NY Slip Op 02127, 2019 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2111 (2d Dept. Mar. … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: Two defs given standing to challenge seizure of their emails on co-def business’s account
Defendants were charged in a dietary supplement mislabeling conspiracy. On the claim of overseizure, the warrant specified “angeline” but the court concludes anything related to it was seizable as well without violating particularity. Two defendants were given standing to challenge … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Overseizure from iCloud account wasn’t so flagrant it required suppression; govt agreed in advance to exclude the overseized
The government’s overseizure from defendant’s iCloud account wasn’t so flagrant or egregious to warrant suppression. The government agreed up-front to exclude the obvious, and that’s a sufficient remedy. United States v. Pinto-Thomaz, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26262 (S.D. N.Y. Feb. … Continue reading
Not too bright to use one’s military work computer to plan domestic terrorism
NYTimes: Coast Guard Officer Plotted to Kill Democrats and Journalists, Prosecutors Say:
ME: SW for all computers in house in a CP case wasn’t overbroad; digital images are easily moved and secreted
In a search warrant for child pornography, a request for all computers and electronic media on the premises wasn’t unreasonable, considering the ease with which digital images can be moved from one device to another and hidden. State v. Roy, … Continue reading
AK: SW for tenant space led to search of computer in landlord’s apt, and that was without PC
Computers are entitled to the same sensitive Fourth Amendment analysis that cell phones got in Riley. Here, Pohland was an Assistant AG of Alaska involved in labor relations matters for the state. McRoberts and her husband were tenants of hers, … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Six month unjustified delay in getting SW for hard drive made search unreasonable
Six month delay in getting a search warrant for a hard drive in a child pornography case was unreasonable. The government could give a good reason for the delays which might have justified it. Search recommended suppressed. United States v. … Continue reading
CA2: Remand required for determination for reason for delay in getting computer SW
Defendant was found passed out in a car on a rural road with the car in gear and the engine running. A tablet was on the seat. Searching the car for information about him, an image of child pornography was … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Nexus to def’s apt shown by physical description not necessarily apt no.
There was sufficient connection to defendant’s alleged drug deals and his residence to support the search warrant. “While law enforcement officials could not determine at that time which of the residential units Jones entered, they were subsequently able to make … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: SW to Skype produced no verifiable information ptf was account user; no PC for a SW based on that information
A search warrant to Skype that produced vague information about its account holder that essentially could have been anyone because there was no verification by Skype was insufficient to show probable cause, and plaintiffs get summary judgment on that question. … Continue reading
NJ: SW for financial crimes on a computer didn’t authorize opening .jpegs
A search warrant for financial crimes on a computer didn’t authorize opening picture files. Child pornography was found. The lack of sophistication of the searching officer is no excuse. State v. Harris, 2018 N.J. Super. LEXIS 160 (Nov. 15, 2018). … Continue reading