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- Reason: Homeland Security Is Monitoring Activists Building Anti-Flock Tech
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- VA: Body cam video of valid arrest would not be suppressed
- NM: Trial court’s finding of consent is reversed because the court engaged in its own internet investigation beyond what the parties provided
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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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General (many free):
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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)
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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: Reasonable expectation of privacy
CA3: No REP in cell phone subscriber records
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in cell phone subscriber information such that a warrant is required to obtain it v. a subpoena duces tecum. United States v. Brooks, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 40561 (3d Cir. Dec. 29, 2020). … Continue reading
GA: LPN at nursing home had no REP in patient’s room from video recording
A rehabilitation center resident’s son put a video camera in his father’s room because of the father’s concern that “strange things” were happening there at night. The resident wanted his son to stay there but he couldn’t because of his … Continue reading
NH: Tenant showed a REP in apt building’s utility closet, but not in vestibule
On the totality under the state constitution, defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy for a pair of wet boots hidden in a utility closet in an apartment building’s vestibule closet. He manifested the expectation of privacy by his actions, … Continue reading
CO: Judicial officer who leaked info about SW he signed was censured, but only after removal from office, a federal obstruction conviction, and disbarment
The respondent former judge told a friend to avoid a certain person when a drug task force search warrant was signed by him for the target. He was federally charged and pled guilty to obstruction of justice and was disbarred … Continue reading
CA11: No REP in one’s email address held by IP company under third-party doctrine
“This appeal requires us to decide whether the government needed a warrant to obtain a criminal suspect’s email address and internet protocol addresses from a third party’s business records. It also requires us to decide whether probable cause supported a … Continue reading
NY4: No REP in a handgun placed under car bumper in driveway at sidewalk visible from off the property
When defendant saw the police car at night, he crouched down behind the rear bumper of his minivan and stood up. The officers could see a gun there, and it was approximately at where the sidewalk and the driveway met. … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Def’s “‘bald assertion that he was an overnight guest,’ and nothing more, is certainly insufficient to establish that he had a legitimate” REP
Defendant was in a motel room coming out of the shower when the police came in. His own assertion he was an overnight guest for the previous two nights alone was insufficient to show his standing. United States v. McDaniels, … Continue reading
NY: Stop for center brake light being out was reasonable basis under statute
The trial court’s grant of the motion to suppress was error. The officer’s reading of the functioning brake light statute was reasonable that the center light being out was cause for a stop. People v. Pena, 2020 NY Slip Op … Continue reading
FL1: No REP in GPS installed in car def borrowed from a friend
Defendant had taken a car from a friend, and the car had a GPS installed by agreement between the owner and the finance company. The car owner didn’t know whether it had been stolen, and reported it to the police. … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Def’s subjective expectation of privacy in Chatstep isn’t enough for a REP
Defendant’s subjective expectation that communications on Chatstep were private isn’t enough for a reasonable expectation of privacy. United States v. Rosenschein, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 211433 (D.N.M. Nov. 12, 2020):
CA5: No standing or REP in the CSLI of another
Defendant didn’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy (standing) in the movements of a cell phone of another. Still, it was with a warrant, and there is no defect in the warrant process. United States v. Beaudion, 2020 U.S. App. … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Trash pull alone didn’t add up to PC, but GFE applies
The affidavit didn’t have enough information to corroborate the trash pull, but the evidence is apparent that the officer relied on it in good faith. United States v. Ray, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207885 (M.D. Pa. Nov. 6, 2020):
CA4: Baltimore’s aerial surveillance program doesn’t violate 4A
Baltimore PD’s Aerial Investigative Research program (AIR) does not violate the reasonable expectation of privacy of Baltimore residents, and denial of the preliminary injunction is affirmed on appeal. Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle v. Baltimore Police Dep’t, 2020 U.S. App. … Continue reading
CA2: NY Family Court orders can suffice as SWs
“New York Family Court orders provide an independent basis for police officers to enter peoples’ homes. We have repeatedly recognized that, ‘[i]n child-abuse investigations, a Family Court order is equivalent to a search warrant for Fourth Amendment purposes.’ Southerland v. … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: Leaving suitcase in an open grassy area is a loss of a REP in it
Defendant left his suitcase in an open grassy area, and that was a waiver any reasonable expectation of privacy in it. See United States v. Wilson, 984 F. Supp. 2d 676 (E.D. Ky. 2013) (leaving suitcase in a cemetery was … Continue reading
N.D.W.Va.: A pipe in a car that could have legitimate uses still was incriminating enough for plain view
A pipe logically and usually used for smoking pot was seized in plain view because its incriminating nature was immediately apparent. The fact it could be used for legal substances doesn’t detract from that. United States v. Runner, 2020 U.S. … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: While one’s roof is on the curtilage, it lacks a REP
Defendant’s roof was not a place with a reasonable expectation of privacy despite the fact it was on the curtilage (decided in the context of an ineffective assistance of counsel claim). Davis v. United States, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 201562 … Continue reading
TX5: HIPAA doesn’t create REP in blood toxicology for medical treatment later used in DUI
HIPAA doesn’t create a reasonable expectation of privacy in one’s blood sample obtained for medical treatment. HIPAA recognizes criminal process to obtain it. Consuelo v. State, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 8460 (Tex. App. – Dallas Oct. 27, 2020). Any lack … Continue reading
CA7: Ptf was a trespasser who had no REP
Plaintiff as a trespasser had no reasonable expectation of privacy to make a Fourth Amendment complaint. “Just as a trespasser has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the property, a trespasser also lacks a possessory interest in the property. The … Continue reading