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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 -
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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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Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
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General (many free):
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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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"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
EFF: Border Agents Need A Warrant to Search Travelers’ Phones, EFF Tells Court
EFF: Border Agents Need A Warrant to Search Travelers’ Phones, EFF Tells Court (press release): The Border Isn’t a Constitution-Free Zone Richmond, Virginia—Border agents must obtain a warrant to search travelers’ phones, tablets, and laptops, which contain a vast trove … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Cell phone border search valid, here with RS
A cell phone can be searched at the border with reasonable suspicion, and the facts of this case rise to this standard. The court doesn’t have to decide whether the search could occur without in the Ninth Circuit. United States … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Sporadic user of cell phone had no standing; gathering provider information not a “search”
Defendant moved to suppress the cell phone data from a phone he sporadically used during a conspiracy, but he has no standing. The date was 334 days worth, and his use was occasional. This is no different that a sporadic … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Opening car door to check the Nader sticker for the VIN on RS was not unreasonable
Opening a car door to check the Nader sticker for the VIN was not unreasonable and did not involve invading a space inside the car. By the time that happened, there was reasonable suspicion. Then there was consent to search … Continue reading
The Root: US Border Agents Can Search Your Cellphone, New Senate Bill Would Require a Warrant First
The Root: US Border Agents Can Search Your Cellphone, New Senate Bill Would Require a Warrant First by Monique Judge: The Department of Homeland Security has reported that searches of cellphones by border agents increased five-fold in just one year, … Continue reading
ND: Cell phone subject to probation search of house where CP suspected to be on it
Defendant was on supervised probation, and his PO received information from his girlfriend that he had “provocative” pictures of clothed young girls he was uploading to a cell phone that had no service. It was reasonable to seize and search … Continue reading
OH8: Taking pictures of sex with a minor with a cell phone supports SW for home computer for storage
The child victim’s claim that defendant used his cell phone to take pictures of the two of them having sex logically supported a search warrant for defendant’s computers in his house because of the ease with which images can be … Continue reading
CNN: Sources: Trump signed off on checking White House staffers’ phones
CNN: Sources: Trump signed off on checking White House staffers’ phones by Jeff Zeleny and Daniella Diaz: President Donald Trump signed off on press secretary Sean Spicer’s decision to check aides’ cell phones to make certain they weren’t communicating with … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: Cell phone + drug case = PC to search cell phone
Drug dealers commonly use cell phones to ply their trade, and that was stated in the affidavit for the search warrant. The USMJ signed the warrant for cell phones, too. Accordingly, the search warrant was executed in good faith. United … Continue reading
CA10: GFE saves general warrant where affidavit specific and affiant served the warrant
Where officers obtained a warrant and searched two cell phones seized at the time of defendant’s arrest, the search warrant was invalid because it did not satisfy the particularity requirement since it did not identify either of the phones that … Continue reading
CA8: Def had no standing in sex trafficking victim’s cell phone
Defendant sought to challenge his previously waived search issue by seeking to withdraw his guilty plea. The phone belonged to his sex trafficking victim, so he apparently doesn’t have standing. United States v. McHenry, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 3358 (8th … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: SW for fingerprints if iPhone is found is rejected as to fingerprints; Riley also informs and narrows the 5A concerns
The government’s search warrant application also seeks fingerprints from any persons found there on execution if any iPhones are found. That part of the warrant application is denied. The cases permitting fingerprint production predated Riley and the issues it presents. … Continue reading
D.S.D.: Def retained REP in his phone from a second search by the feds after a state search without a SW; plain view doesn’t apply to digital searches
Defendant retained a reasonable expectation of privacy in his cell phone after a state search when the phone data was turned over to the ATF, and they, too, should have obtained a search warrant. The court discusses United States v. … Continue reading
WaPo: Can federal agents detain citizens at border checkpoints until they disclose their smartphone passcodes?
WaPo: Can federal agents detain citizens at border checkpoints until they disclose their smartphone passcodes? by Orin Kerr: The Verge has a story about the recent border-crossing experience of a U.S. citizen, Sidd Bikkannavar, who is an employee at NASA’s … Continue reading
NY4: Search of cell phone for texts led to SW; not inevitable discovery because SW sought because of illegal search
Defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights in his cell phone text messages were violated by the police searching them without a warrant. The fact they got a warrant later didn’t help them because that was the only reason to search the phone, … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: Border search cursory search of defendant’s cell phone was reasonable
A border search cursory search of defendant’s cell phone was reasonable, even under Cotterman. They also had more than reasonable suspicion. United States v. Escarcega, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 185466 (W.D. Tex. July 29, 2015):
W.D.Tex.: A cell phone may be searched under the border search exception [CA5 to decide soon]
A cell phone may be searched under the border search exception. While the Fifth Circuit hasn’t decided the issue yet, it soon will be [see quoted n.4, infra]. United States v. Molina-Isidoro, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183368 (W.D. Tex. Oct. … Continue reading
CA9: ATF officer’s SW affidavit said dealers of illegal drugs and guns often use cell phones showed nexus; recording phone’s SN at book-in wasn’t unreasonable
Noting in the affidavit for search warrant that defendant was allegedly involved in drug and gun sales and that drug dealers regularly use cell phones was enough to get a search warrant for his cell phones contents. Recording the serial … Continue reading