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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 -
Latest Slip Opinions:
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Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
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State courts (and some USDC opinions)
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
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Solicitor General's site
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Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
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S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
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General (many free):
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Westlaw.com $
F.R.Crim.P. 41
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
Privacy Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
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
WaPo: Senate rejects compromise bill on surveillance
WaPo: Senate rejects compromise bill on surveillance by Mike DeBonis and Ellen Nakashima: The measure would have ended the NSA’s bulk collection of private phone records. Senators aren’t convening again until May 31, just hours before the legal authority for … Continue reading
The Hill: Senate barrels toward crucial NSA votes
The Hill: Senate barrels toward crucial NSA votes by Julian Hattem: Pressure is mounting on the GOP to back a reform bill, but its fate is far from certain.
The Hill: Paul begins Patriot Act filibuster
The Hill: Paul begins Patriot Act filibuster by Jordain Carney: Presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul took to the Senate floor Wednesday, in what the Kentucky Republican’s staff is calling a filibuster of extending the Patriot Act. “I will not let … Continue reading
WaPo: Why the ruling against the NSA’s phone records program could have huge implications
WaPo: Why the ruling against the NSA’s phone records program could have huge implications by Andrea Peterson: A federal appeals court ruling that the National Security Agency’s collection of millions of Americans’ phone records is illegal could undercut more than … Continue reading
EFF Case Analysis: Appeals Court Rules NSA Phone Records Dragnet is Illegal
EFF Case Analysis: Appeals Court Rules NSA Phone Records Dragnet is Illegal by Andrew Crocker: We now have the first decision from a court of appeals on the NSA’s mass surveillance program involving bulk collection of telephone records under Section … Continue reading
WaPo: Bulk records collection nearing endgame
WaPo: Bulk records collection nearing endgame By Ellen Nakashima: For months, the debate around the future of the National Security Agency’s collection of millions of Americans’ phone records was framed as a stark choice between ending the program completely or … Continue reading
Just Security: The Substance of the Second Circuit on 215: Four Key Takeaways
Just Security: The Substance of the Second Circuit on 215: Four Key Takeaways by Jennifer Daskal: Yesterday the Second Circuit declared the NSA’s bulk telephone metadata program unlawful. Specifically, it ruled that it was unauthorized by section 215 of the … Continue reading
WaPo: Friday Rant: Bills of Frights edition
WaPo: Opinions: Friday Rant: Bills of Frights edition by Tom Toles: Would anyone seriously argue that laptops, emails, and smartphones are not the 21st equivalent of papers and effects? Of course not. But……. terrorism. We cannot bear the thought of … Continue reading
The Libertarian Republic: US Citizen Secretly Detained Without Charges Shows the Growing Effects of Counterterrorism Policies
The Libertarian Republic: US Citizen Secretly Detained Without Charges Shows the Growing Effects of Counterterrorism Policies by Alison Basley Effects of the War on Terror on U.S. citizens, such as surveillance, secret interrogations, and being detained without charges, are becoming … Continue reading
Cato: In Holding NSA Spying Illegal, the Second Circuit Treats Data as Property
Cato: In Holding NSA Spying Illegal, the Second Circuit Treats Data as Property by Jim Harper: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled that section 215 of the USA-PATRIOT Act never authorized the National Security Agency’s … Continue reading
WaPo: Second Circuit rules, mostly symbolically, that current text of Section 215 doesn’t authorize bulk surveillance
WaPo: Second Circuit rules, mostly symbolically, that current text of Section 215 doesn’t authorize bulk surveillance by Orin Kerr: Edward Snowden’s biggest leak was that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had interpreted Section 215 of the Patriot Act to authorize … Continue reading
CA2: § 215 of the Patriot Act does not authorize the NSA’s bulk collection of metadata of telephone calls
§ 215 of the Patriot Act does not authorize the NSA’s bulk collection of metadata of telephone calls, but the decision is stayed. The third party doctrine is important, but it doesn’t have to be reached. SCOTUS’s Amnesty International v. … Continue reading
The Intercept: The Computers are Listening: How the NSA Converts Spoken Words Into Searchable Text
The Intercept: The Computers are Listening: How the NSA Converts Spoken Words Into Searchable Text by Brian Foomkin: Most people realize that emails and other digital communications they once considered private can now become part of their permanent record. But … Continue reading
PCWorld: Lawmakers move to end warrantless surveillance of U.S. residents
PCWorld: Lawmakers move to end warrantless surveillance of U.S. residents: A new bill in Congress would require law enforcement agencies to get court-ordered warrants before targeting U.S. residents in searches of electronic communications collected by the National Security Agency. The … Continue reading
NY Times: Why the N.S.A. Isn’t Howling Over Restrictions
NY Times: Why the N.S.A. Isn’t Howling Over Restrictions by Peter Baker and David E. Sanger WASHINGTON — For years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, even as the National Security Agency fiercely defended its secret efforts to sweep … Continue reading
Just Security: USA Freedom and the Surveillance Reform That Almost Was
Just Security: USA Freedom and the Surveillance Reform That Almost Was by Elizabeth Goitein: Committee markups can be a dry affair, an opportunity for political showboating, or both. Yesterday’s markup of the USA Freedom Act in the House Judiciary Committee … Continue reading
ITWorld: House committee approves bill to end NSA phone records program
ITWorld: House committee approves bill to end NSA phone records program by Grant Gross A U.S. Congress committee has overwhelmingly approved legislation designed to stop the bulk collection of U.S. phone records by the National Security Agency. The 25-2 vote … Continue reading
techdirt: NSA’s Stellar Wind Program Was Almost Completely Useless, Hidden From FISA Court By NSA And FBI
techdirt: NSA’s Stellar Wind Program Was Almost Completely Useless, Hidden From FISA Court By NSA And FBI by Tim Cushing: A huge report (747 pages) on the NSA’s Stellar Wind program has been turned over to Charlie Savage of the … Continue reading
The Hill on re-upping Patriot Act
The Hill: With clock ticking, lawmakers unveil Patriot Act bill The effort sets up a battle to win over lawmakers on both sides of the spying debate. ACLU quickly opposes NSA bill The group said the reforms don’t go far … Continue reading
ComputerWorld: The new legislation would extend the telephone records collection section of the law for five years
ComputerWorld: The new legislation would extend the telephone records collection section of the law for five years by Grant Gross: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a bill that would extend the surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act until 2020, … Continue reading