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- N.D.Ala.: SW not invalid because issuing judge previously represented the target
- The Guardian: ‘We should be worried’: report sheds light on ICE’s booming arsenal of hi-tech surveillance tools
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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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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)
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"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: Cell phones
CA8: SW for already seized cell phone came from SW for far more; apparently created confusion, but not suppression
Officers had seized defendant’s phone and applied for a search warrant for it and other things at the same time, and that led to a motion to suppress the phone search. “Suellentrop argues that the search of the phone was … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Seven week delay for SW for cell phone validly seized wasn’t unreasonable
A delay of seven weeks for seeking a search warrant for a cell phone already validly seized wasn’t unreasonable. Several cases approved long delays, and this is near the outer limit, but still valid. United States v. Butler, 2020 U.S. … Continue reading
FL2: Direct contempt for refusing to provide passcode for cell phone search reversed; out-of-court evidence couldn’t be considered
Defendant was held in contempt and sentenced to five months and 29 days for refusing to provide the passcode for his cell phone so it could be searched under a warrant. “However, whether a finding of contempt could have been … Continue reading
NE: No IAC for not objecting to authentication of cell phone records obtained by SW
It was speculation that if the defense had objected to authentication of cell phone records obtained by search warrant that the objection would have been sustained. No IAC on this ground. State v. Sierra, 305 Neb. 249 (Mar. 13, 2020). … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Nexus here was so “thin” that the court won’t even apply GFE
The government didn’t even show a connection between the defendant and the alleged crime to get access to his subscriber information. “While courts may find the good-faith exception to apply when an application is ‘thin,’ a showing of some connection … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Just because the govt can’t unlock def’s iPhone doesn’t mean he can get return of it under Rule 41(g)
Just because the government hasn’t yet accessed defendant’s iPhone because it can’t crack the code to unlock it doesn’t mean that defendant can get it back under Rule 41(g). It’s still potential evidence. United States v. Morgan, 2020 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
Vice: We Built a Database of Over 500 iPhones Cops Have Tried to Unlock
Vice: We Built a Database of Over 500 iPhones Cops Have Tried to Unlock by Joseph Cox (“‘It is the world we are in today, and so have to deal with it,’ former FBI general counsel Jim Baker said about … Continue reading
DE: Def’s consent overcame overbreadth issue; “all digital contents” includes photos
The scope of the search of defendant’s cell phone data was overbroad, but defendant consented: “However, Defendant consented to the search of ‘all digital contents’ of his cell phone. Based on the scope of this consent, the police were permitted … Continue reading
GA: SW for “electronic data” includes photos on a cell phone
Defendant claimed to be staying in a vacant apartment with the permission of a friend (who was not the landlord). There was probable cause to arrest him for theft of services (not to mention trespass). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for … Continue reading
Vox: The police want your phone data. Here’s what they can get — and what they can’t.
Vox: The police want your phone data. Here’s what they can get — and what they can’t. By Sara Morrison (“Phones hold gigabytes of potential evidence, but the government’s ability to access them depends on a patchwork of court decisions … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Getting def to unlock his phone wasn’t unreasonable because the SIM card would have been forensically searched later anyway
It was reasonable for POs to search defendant’s unapproved cell phone without a search warrant as a probation search. Making him use his face or get the password to unlock the phone was not unreasonable because the contents of the … Continue reading
CA8: “Other media” in a SW includes cell phones
“Other media” in a search warrant includes cell phones. United States v. Oliver, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 5035 (8th Cir. Feb. 19, 2020):
SC: Search of cell phone abandoned at crime scene was reasonable since just to determine ownership
A shooting occurred in a Taco Bell parking lot, apparently a drug deal gone bad. Three cell phones were found in the car. The police searched them without a warrant and one was defendants. The state argued abandonment (which it … Continue reading
WaPo: Mexican national arrested in Florida on accusation of spying for Russia
WaPo: Mexican national arrested in Florida on accusation of spying for Russia by Brittany Shammas. The story describes a border exit search:
WA: Cell phone search must be strictly limited to the PC that authorized it
“Modern cell phones are unique devices, capable of storing vast amounts of personal data. To guard against governmental invasion of this information, the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution generally requires explicit authorization to search a cell phone through … Continue reading
NPR.org: Warrant-Proof Encrypted Messages Targeted By Trump Administration
NPR.org: Warrant-Proof Encrypted Messages Targeted By Trump Administration (“‘End-to-end encryption’ has gone mainstream, which means tech companies can’t decrypt messages even when law enforcement has a warrant. The Trump administration says that’s taking privacy too far.”)
SSRN: Decryption Originalism: The Lessons of Burr
SSRN: Decryption Originalism: The Lessons of Burr by Orin S. Kerr. Abstract:
MI: Civil discovery must comply with the 4A; here a cell phone search
Civil discovery must comply with the Fourth Amendment. Here, there was an order to turn over a cell phone for forensic evaluation, and it was essentially based on probable cause. Attorney-client privilege must also be protected. Martin v. Martin, 2020 … Continue reading
Legal Intelligencer: Commentary: Password Protection and the Foregone Conclusion Exception
Legal Intelligencer: Commentary: Password Protection and the Foregone Conclusion Exception by Leonard Deutchman (“In this month’s article, I will review Davis and discuss its reasoning and what the foregone conclusion exception, in the age of computer passwords, tells us about … Continue reading