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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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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)
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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: FISA
NYTimes: N.S.A. Halts Collection of Americans’ Emails About Foreign Targets
NYTimes: N.S.A. Halts Collection of Americans’ Emails About Foreign Targets by Charlie Savage:
ATL: Liberal Silence Tramples The Fourth Amendment
ATL: Liberal Silence Tramples The Fourth Amendment by Kayleigh McEnany: This week liberals have displayed their willingness to play politics with our constitutional rights. It is wrong. It is unfortunate. And most of all, it is dangerous.
WaPo: How hard is it to get an intelligence wiretap? Pretty hard.
WaPo: How hard is it to get an intelligence wiretap? Pretty hard. by By Ellen Nakashima:
D.Colo.: Defs’ calls captured on FISA application were reasonable
Defendants were charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization, and their conversations were captured in a FISA application. This motion to suppress was based on disclosure two years into the case of other acquisitions of information about him. … Continue reading
CA9: Incidental capture of U.S. person’s emails between him and a foreign national were reasonable under FISA and 4A
A person in the U.S. has a diminished privacy interest in emails between himself and foreign nationals that the NSA can intercept. Incidental capturing of emails between defendant in the U.S. and others elsewhere didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment because … Continue reading
FISCR: There is a foreign intelligence exception to the warrant requirement going back to the 1970’s
There is a foreign intelligence exception to the warrant requirement going back to the 1970’s. Moreover, the trap and trace here only gathers numbers not content, and that’s reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. In re Certified Question of Law, 2016 … Continue reading
FISCR: Capturing some call content isn’t unreasonable if it can’t [maybe won’t] be used
Incidental capturing of content information during use of a pen register is not unreasonable. The technology only allows for capture some, and it can’t be used without a separate order based on probable cause. In re: Certified Question of Law, … Continue reading
Just Security: With Remote Hacking, the Government’s Particularity Problem Isn’t Going Away
Just Security: With Remote Hacking, the Government’s Particularity Problem Isn’t Going Away by Andrew Crocker:
Just Security: The 702 Reform Debate Is Just Heating Up
Just Security: The 702 Reform Debate Is Just Heating Up by Faiza Patel:
SecurityInfoWatch: Officials calling for tweaks to security protocol
SecurityInfoWatch: Officials calling for tweaks to security protocol by William L. Spence: May 11–WASHINGTON, DC — Privacy and civil liberty advocates say a “vital” surveillance program that has helped identify terrorists and thwart attacks should be modified to ensure greater … Continue reading
InfoWorld: Warrantless searches surge as online privacy dwindles
InfoWorld: Warrantless searches surge as online privacy dwindles by Caroline Craig: The government’s use of warrantless searches and secret requests for information is exploding, and recent court actions have greatly expanded the reach of legal searches. The digital age is … Continue reading
techdirt: National Intelligence Office’s Top Lawyer Fires Off Spirited Defense Of Bulk Surveillance, Third Party Doctrine
techdirt: National Intelligence Office’s Top Lawyer Fires Off Spirited Defense Of Bulk Surveillance, Third Party Doctrine by Tim Cushing: Robert Litt, General Counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, has been given space at the Yale Law … Continue reading
Reason.com: The Fourth Amendment and the Fruit of the Poisonous Tree (New at Reason)
Reason.com: The Fourth Amendment and the Fruit of the Poisonous Tree (New at Reason) by Reason staff: The USA Freedom Act provides cover for unconstitutional searches of citizens.
NYTimes: After Missteps, U.S. Tightens Rules for National Security Cases
NYTimes: After Missteps, U.S. Tightens Rules for National Security Cases by Matt Apuzzo: WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has issued new rules that give prosecutors in Washington greater oversight and control over national security cases after the collapse of several … Continue reading
Lawfare: FISA gathered information in ordinary criminal cases
Lawfare: Section 702: Programmatic Collection and the Wall Reprised by Emma Buchsbaum:
eff.org: Secret Court Takes Another Bite Out of the Fourth Amendment
eff.org: Secret Court Takes Another Bite Out of the Fourth Amendment: Defenders of the NSA’s mass spying have lost an important talking point: that the erosion of our privacy and associational rights is justified given the focus of surveillance efforts … Continue reading
Just Security: The FBI’s Warrantless Surveillance Back Door Just Opened a Little Wider
Just Security: The FBI’s Warrantless Surveillance Back Door Just Opened a Little Wider by Elizabeth Goitein: On Tuesday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a redacted version of an opinion by Judge Thomas F. Hogan of … Continue reading
Lawfare: ODNI Releases Three FISC Opinions
Lawfare: ODNI Releases Three FISC Opinions by Cody M. Poplin: The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released three redacted Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinions (FISC) yesterday, respectively on a pen register and trap-and-trace case, Section 702 certifications, and … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: A brief explanation of how FISA surveillance works and why this was constitutional
Defendant pled to attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization by flying from JFK to Turkey to Pakistan. His emails overseas were captured by FISA and led to his prosecution. After the plea he filed a 2255 to … Continue reading
D.C.Cir. dissolves injunction against telephony metadata collection sanctioned by FISA
D.C.Cir. dissolves injunction against telephony metadata collection sanctioned by FISA. Klayman v. Obama, 15-5001 (D.C.Cir. August 28, 2015):