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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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)
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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
CA2: Child prostitution exigency for warrantless cell phone ping
Defendant’s phone was pinged at the request of law enforcement to find him after they developed strong reason to believe he took a 16 year old girl from Maryland to NYC to work her as a prostitute. This type of … Continue reading
WSJ: Cellphone Smudges Yield a Trove of Forensic Data
WSJ: Cellphone Smudges Yield a Trove of Forensic Data by Robert Lee Hotz: Researchers say molecules and microbes left on phone, keys, credit cards can linger for months.
N.D.Cal.: Cursory look at cell phone that revealed nothing doesn’t preclude PC for SW
A cursory search of a codefendant’s phone produced nothing and a cursory look at defendant’s phone didn’t either. That does not, however, preclude a finding of probable cause to believe that there was evidence on the phone for a search … Continue reading
TN: Def’s children were missing after he was arrested for shooting his wife, so entry into house was based on exigency
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not challenging the warrantless entry into defendant’s home. He was apprehended for shootings including shooting his wife, and their children were unaccounted for. The entry was valid based on exigency. Therefore, no IAC. Jordan v. … Continue reading
NYTimes: A 10-Digit Key Code to Your Private Life: Your Cellphone Number
NYTimes: A 10-Digit Key Code to Your Private Life: Your Cellphone Number by Steve Lohr:
A.F.Ct.Crim.App.: Seizing cell phone before search authorization was granted was inevitable discovery
Based on a female airman’s complaint, AFOSI developed information that defendant had sex with her when she was too intoxicated to consent. She believed that he had pictures on his cell phone. OSI was seeking a search authorization for his … Continue reading
Can a SW issue for a cell phone in any drug case? We’re just about there because so many cases assume there is PC in such cases. This one Georgia
The affidavit for defendant’s cell phone in this drug case showed probable cause to search it [without a word about the phone and the crime]. Glispie v. State, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 736 (Nov. 7, 2016):
N.D.Ga.: Nexus shown to connect def’s cell phone in car to potential gang retaliation
Nexus can be proved by inference or direct observation. Defendant was found in his car with weapons as a FIPF in rival gang territory when he was arrested, and it’s a reasonable inference the cell phone in the car would … Continue reading
MD: Cell phones are so commonly involved in crimes that it’s now relatively easy to get a SW for one
Defendant was charged with child pornography: “I. Does an affiant’s assertion that ‘individuals who participate in [sex or drug] crimes communicate via cellular telephones, via text messages, calls, e-mails etc.,’ without more, provide a substantial basis to issue a search … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Text messages provided nexus for SW for cell phone that produced CP
Defendant lived in the heated garage converted to a bedroom of a couple with two small children. One of the children said she was touched by defendant and they ordered him out of the house. Later, a search warrant was … Continue reading
WaPo: Volokh Conspiracy: The Fifth Amendment and Touch ID
WaPo: Volokh Conspiracy: The Fifth Amendment and Touch ID by Orin Kerr: My recent post on the legality of warrants that permit phone unlocking prompted some reader comments on how the Fifth Amendment might apply to using fingerprint readers such … Continue reading
Techdirt: Granted Warrant Allowed Feds To Force Everyone At Searched Residence To Unlock Devices With Their Fingerprints
Techdirt: Granted Warrant Allowed Feds To Force Everyone At Searched Residence To Unlock Devices With Their Fingerprints by Tim Cushing: This is the reality of what the government is seeking: law enforcement officers detaining suspects and non-suspects alike and forcing … Continue reading
BankInfoSecurity: Police Can Collect Fingerprints to Unlock Phone
BankInfoSecurity: Police Can Collect Fingerprints to Unlock Phone by Jeremy Kirk: Search Warrant Casts Doubt on Effectiveness of Biometric Security
OH5: Ten day delay in getting warrant for cell phone seized on exigency was reasonable
The seizure of defendant’s cell phone at a police interview was reasonable. The detective had probable cause to believe that it contained evidence of an armed robbery. Its warrantless seizure was demanded by the exigencies of the situation because defendant … Continue reading
DC: Inevitable discovery applied to cell phone search in 2002 rather than GFE
Inevitable discovery used to justify a search of a cell phone in 2002 because it might have been unreasonable under Riley from 2014 (no mention of good faith exception applied to pre-Riley searches). Logan v. United States, 2016 D.C. App. … Continue reading
WaPo: Why Apple can be forced to turn logs of your iMessage contacts over to police
WaPo: Why Apple can be forced to turn logs of your iMessage contacts over to police by Andrea Peterson: When a user sends someone a message through Apple’s iMessage feature, Apple encrypts that message between Apple devices so that only … Continue reading
OH9: Nine air fresheners on mirror and one on each air vent was RS
Defendant had nine air fresheners hanging from the rearview mirror and one over every air vent. That was reasonable suspicion to utilize a drug dog during the computer checks and then another officer running a dog around the car while … Continue reading
MA: SW for a cell phone requires facts for nexus to crime, not just “experience shows”
Nexus between a cell phone’s contents and a crime has to be shown by evidence, not just the officer’s experience in similar cases. Also, the phone was seized without a warrant to protect the contents from tampering, and it was … Continue reading
ABAJ: New York considers ‘textalyzer’ bill to allow police to see if drivers were texting behind the wheel
ABAJ: New York considers ‘textalyzer’ bill to allow police to see if drivers were texting behind the wheel by Jason Tashea:
OR: State didn’t show PC to seize all cell phones, cameras, and computers def might have to get one audio recording on his cell phone
There was an alleged domestic assault at defendant’s home. There was reason to believe the home security system and his cell phone would have evidence of it in an audio recording. He could also access the security system with his … Continue reading