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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)
--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
MA: PC was shown for searching def’s cell phone for messages to and from murder victim; SW’s overbreadth was cured by searchers’ limiting scope of search
Probable cause was shown to search defendant’s cell phone for text messages and calls from the murder victim. The victim’s phone wasn’t found, and it was logical there could be information on the phone and the victim’s was taken to … Continue reading
MA: Production of password to iPhone doesn’t violate 5A because ownership of iPhone is foregone conclusion
The state via a grand jury request sought the password to defendant’s iPhone. Production of the password would implicate self-incrimination concerns, but, here, it’s a foregone conclusion that it’s his phone and there are no self-incrimination concerns. Civil contempt affirmed … Continue reading
D.Me.: CP on a cell phone is nexus to CP being on a computer
Child pornography on defendant’s cell phone is nexus to his computer. Computers are common storage devices for cell phone pictures and information. “Common sense suggests that if an individual has images of child pornography downloaded to one electronic device, the … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Any reasonable person on supervised release would know a computer search condition extended to a cell phone
Defendant was on supervised release, and he had a computer search condition. The court concludes that any reasonable person would understand a cell phone would be a “computer” for the search condition. In any event, it had already been searched … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: 16 day delay in search of cell phone under SW not unreasonable
After a lawful seizure of a cell phone and issuance of a search warrant to search it, a 16 day delay in actually searching the phone did not make it unreasonable. United States v. Brantley, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 198432 … Continue reading
CO: Pre-Riley cell phone search incident not saved by GFE because no prior case on point
Defendant’s cell phone was subjected to a pre-Riley search incident. Defendant preserved the issue, and now he prevails. The state’s reliance on Davis good faith exception fails because the case the state relies on to support good faith reliance on … Continue reading
CA9: While cell phone privacy interest is substantial, state’s interest in parole searches of cell phones is greater
While the general reasonable expectation of privacy in a cell phone is weighty, it still succumbs to the state’s interest in parole searches of a cell phone to insure compliance with parole requirements. The record also supports consent given by … Continue reading
Lawfare: The Fifth Amendment, Decryption and Biometric Passcodes
Lawfare: The Fifth Amendment, Decryption and Biometric Passcodes by Kendall Howell:
Vice News: How cops hack into your phone without a warrant
Vice News: How cops hack into your phone without a warrant by y Isabella McKinley Corbo [re: Carpenter]: Right now, a murky web of federal and state statutes determine how easily cops can access data on Americans’ cell phones. While … Continue reading
techcrunch: Authorities serve Apple a warrant for Texas shooter’s iPhone
techcrunch: Authorities serve Apple a warrant for Texas shooter’s iPhone by Brian Heater:
MA: Def counsel gave IAC for not moving to suppress cell phone data; just because it might be interesting isn’t PC
Defendant received ineffective assistance of counsel by counsel’s failure to file a motion to suppress the search of defendant’s cell phone. The affidavit for the search warrant did not establish probable cause to search the phone. The mere fact two … Continue reading
PA: Riley doesn’t apply to parole searches of cell phones
Riley doesn’t apply to parole searches of cell phones. Commonwealth v. Murray, 2017 PA Super 363, 2017 Pa. Super. LEXIS 928 (Nov. 15, 2017):
N.D.Ill.: PO seeing an “unregistered” cell phone was seizure in plain view
Defendant was on supervised release for child pornography and he had a cell phone not listed with US Probation. The phone was seen during a home visit. The PO picked up the phone and turned it on and a picture … Continue reading
Politico: Texas killings may aid Rosenstein’s crusade on encryption
Politico: Texas killings may aid Rosenstein’s crusade on encryption by Eric Geller:
NPR: Texas Gunman’s Locked Cellphone Renews Debate Over Encryption
NPR: Texas Gunman’s Locked Cellphone Renews Debate Over Encryption by Samantha Raphelson: The FBI is blaming the tech industry’s encryption standard on its inability to unlock the cellphone of the Texas shooter. But some experts say if the FBI acted … Continue reading
Cal.3d: Domestic battery conviction didn’t support cell phone probation search condition
A broad probation electronics search condition for domestic battery was constitutionally overbroad because it doesn’t sufficiently serve the state’s interests compared to the crime of conviction. A cell phone has far too much information on it to make it so … Continue reading
N.D.Fla.: Entry into motel room was valid with arrest warrant when officers reasonably believed he would be there
The U.S. Marshal’s fugitive task force, with arrest warrant in hand, was looking for defendant. They were watching his motel room and saw him outside and gave chase. They lost sight of him and circled back to his hotel room … Continue reading
CA9: Def’s wife was a private actor turning over his hard drive to the police
Defendant’s wife was not acting as an agent of the government when she turned over his hard drive to the police. The search warrant they obtained was clearly issued on probable cause. United States v. Wolff, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
NACDL: Protecting Your Digital Devices at the Border, A Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Primer
NACDL: Protecting Your Digital Devices at the Border, A Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Primer (October 2017): Courts have long made it clear that agents can search the bags of people entering the country. For the past decade or so, U.S. Customs … Continue reading
Law.com: The Old Particularity in New Digital Raids
Law.com: The Old Particularity in New Digital Raids by Peter A. Crusco In his Cyber Crime column, Peter A. Crusco addresses the particularity requirement as it relates to digital evidence seized by search warrant, reviews some of the recent cases, … Continue reading