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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)
"On the Docket"–Medill
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General (many free):
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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
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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: Cell phones
D.Minn.: USMJ who issues SW doesn’t have to recuse from deciding motion to suppress
The USMJ who issued the search warrant doesn’t need to recuse from deciding on a motion to suppress that warrant. “The Court also concludes that Strieff controls the analysis of Defendant’s challenge to his stop in Rock Island, Illinois. In … Continue reading
Gizmodo: Woman Sues Border Agents to Make Them Return Data They Seized From Her Phone
Gizmodo: Woman Sues Border Agents to Make Them Return Data They Seized From Her Phone by Melanie Ehrenkranz:
IN: Order compelling owner of iPhone to unlock it violates 5A self-incrimination; the state is seeking to extract information from her mind
Defendant claimed she’d been sexually assaulted by her boyfriend. In investigating that, it turned into a stalking and harassment investigation of her. The state got a search warrant for her phone. When she wouldn’t unlock it, they sought a court … Continue reading
S.D.Cal.: Cell phone was validly searched under border search exception; obtaining passcode was likely unlawful, but government isn’t going to use it
Defendant was arrested at Calexico for importing meth. While in the holding cell, she gave up the password for the cell phone. The government isn’t going to use her revealing the password as evidence, but it wants to use the … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Federal SW for cell phone after private search then state SW was on independent source
Defendant’s cell phone was first the subject of a private search, and then a police search. The police search exceeded the scope of the private search, and that led to a state issued search warrant. The state search warrant was … Continue reading
MA: Two day delay in getting SW for cell phone wasn’t unreasonable
Defendant’s cell phone was reasonably seized to preserve any evidence in it. The two day delay in getting a search warrant for it did not unreasonably interfere with defendant’s possessory interest in it. Commonwealth v. Cruzado, 2018 Mass. LEXIS 549 … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Cell phone SW in white collar case also for proof of perjury was a virtual computer search but it was still one issued on PC
In an investigation into job promotion and hiring fraud in the Cook County Circuit Clerk’s office, a cell phone search warrant was issued, and it was with probable cause. “Because the affidavit established probable cause to believe that Beena’s cell … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Cell phone SWs have to be considered like a computer search; this was broad yet still particular enough
The search warrant for defendant’s phone was broad, yes, but it was sufficiently particular, and the good faith exception applies as well. A cell phone is a computer, and the issue is analyzed the same. United States v. Chang, 2018 … Continue reading
NY3: Cell phone SW must be based on fact and inference, not just “common sense”
A search warrant for a cell phone must be based on fact and inference not just on “common sense.” People v. Jemmott, 2018 NY Slip Op 05632, 2018 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5576 (3d Dept. Aug. 2, 2018). The application … Continue reading
NY2: Defense counsel not ineffective for not challenging cell phone search that apparently would lose
“Counsel’s failure to challenge the [cell phone] search warrant can be explained as a legitimate trial strategy because the application for the warrant was supported by probable cause, and the warrant was not unconstitutionally overbroad, despite a technical defect on … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Warrantless search of cell phone six years after border crossing violated 4A
Defendant crossed the border in July 2012, and his phone was seized and somewhat analyzed. On the eve of trial in July 2018, the government did a full search without a warrant. Defendant moves to suppress, and it’s granted. The … Continue reading
Human Rights Watch Blog: US: Government Has Planted Spy Phones With Suspects
Human Rights Watch Blog: US: Government Has Planted Spy Phones With Suspects:
W.D.Mo.: Cell phone seized during child porn raid was initially seized and searched, and then seven months later searched again; no exclusion
The defendant’s cell phone was seized during a child pornography raid. The phone was attempted to be searched reasonably promptly, and it was confirmed there was child pornography on it. The search was not completed, however, because of problems with … Continue reading
TN: Seizure of a cell phone incident to arrest is provided for in Riley; search still requires warrant
Defendant’s cell phone was properly seized incident to his arrest, as contemplated by Riley. It was not searched until a search warrant was obtained. State v. Wade, 2018 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 523 (July 13, 2018). The search warrant for … Continue reading
Lexology: Can the government unlock your iPhone by forcing you to provide your fingerprints?
Lexology: Can the government unlock your iPhone by forcing you to provide your fingerprints? by Duane Morris LLP.
Gizmodo: These Academics Spent the Last Year Testing Whether Your Phone Is Secretly Listening to You
Gizmodo: These Academics Spent the Last Year Testing Whether Your Phone Is Secretly Listening to You by Kashmir Hill (it’s not but apps tracking what you see and seek may make it seem that way):
IN: Cell phones are a tool of the trade of drug dealers; a lot of information extracted from it doesn’t show SW was overbroad
There was nexus between defendant’s alleged crime of drug dealing and his cell phone since cell phones are a tool of drug dealers. The search warrant was not impermissibly overbroad. Although 1000 pages of information was extracted from the phone, … Continue reading
D.D.C.: SW for cell phone can also compel use of biometric data to open it
The government may also seek a search warrant for a cell phone that requires use of biometric information to open it, as long as it happens at the time of execution. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in fingerprints … Continue reading
Cal.: Carpenter‘s search warrant requirement does not apply to cell phone records merely used to show that co-conspirators communicated with each other
Carpenter’s search warrant requirement does not apply to cell phone records merely used to show that co-conspirators communicated with each other. In light of the whole trial, it wasn’t all that important. People v. Anderson, 2018 Cal. LEXIS 4698 (June … Continue reading