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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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General (many free):
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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)
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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
S.D.Cal.: A cursory search of a cell phone of a person arrested for importation of drugs was permissible under the border search exception
A cursory search of a cell phone of a person arrested for importation of drugs was permissible under the border search exception. This was no deep forensic evaluation. Defendant also showed standing in the cell phone in his possession. “Specifically, … Continue reading
NYTimes: In New Filing, Apple Resists F.B.I.’s Call to Open iPhone in Drug Case
NYTimes: In New Filing, Apple Resists F.B.I.’s Call to Open iPhone in Drug Case by Eric Lichtblau: Apple told a federal court on Friday that it should not have to help the F.B.I. unlock an iPhone used by a Brooklyn … Continue reading
Windows IT Pro: Microsoft to DOJ: The cloud isn’t an automatic Fourth Amendment exemption; challenging the third-party doctrine in the Cloud
Windows IT Pro: Microsoft to DOJ: The cloud isn’t an automatic Fourth Amendment exemption by Michael Morisy: Company fights government demands for secret searches of cloud customers
WBAL: Baltimore police sued over cellphone tracking
WBAL: Baltimore police sued over cellphone tracking by David Collins Lawsuit: Police secretly used powerful phone surveillance tool
W.D.Ky.: Affidavit truly was “bare bones” on nexus, so no GFE
“It generalizes that ‘an individual’ may have information on his or her phone that connects him or her to a crime, co-defendants or victims, rather than specifically connecting Ramirez, the crime with which he was charged, or any known information … Continue reading
Vice: Exclusive: Canadian Police Obtained BlackBerry’s Global Decryption Key
Vice: Exclusive: Canadian Police Obtained BlackBerry’s Global Decryption Key by Justin Ling and Jordan Pearson: A high-level surveillance probe of Montreal’s criminal underworld shows that Canada’s federal policing agency has had a global encryption key for BlackBerry devices since 2010.
NYTimes: F.B.I. Used Hacking Software Decade Before iPhone Fight
NYTimes: F.B.I. Used Hacking Software Decade Before iPhone Fight by Matt Apuzzo: They persuaded a judge to let them remotely, and secretly, install software on the group’s computers to help get around the encryption. That effort, revealed in newly declassified … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Denying ownership of phone and knowledge of password was a lack of REP
There were exigent circumstances for seizure of defendant’s cell phone because of the possibility of the phone being remotely erased or thrown away. Then defendant denied knowledge of the password or ownership of the phone, and that showed a lack … Continue reading
WaPo: FBI paid professional hackers one-time fee to crack San Bernardino iPhone
WaPo: FBI paid professional hackers one-time fee to crack San Bernardino iPhone by Ellen Nakashima: The FBI cracked a San Bernardino terrorist’s phone with the help of professional hackers who discovered and brought to the bureau at least one previously … Continue reading
Ars Technica: First came the Breathalyzer, now meet the roadside police “textalyzer”
Ars Technica: First came the Breathalyzer, now meet the roadside police “textalyzer” by David Kravets: Drivers in accidents could risk losing license for refusing to submit phone to testing.
R St.: Encryption: Balancing the needs of law enforcement and the Fourth Amendment
R St.: Encryption: Balancing the needs of law enforcement and the Fourth Amendment (pdf)
The Hill: Boston judge ordered Apple to give FBI iPhone data in gang case
The Hill: Boston judge ordered Apple to give FBI iPhone data in gang case by Katie Bo Williams: A federal judge in Boston ordered Apple to help the FBI access information on a suspect’s locked iPhone earlier this year, according … Continue reading
WSJ: U.S. to Keep Pushing Apple to Unlock iPhone in New York Case
WSJ: U.S. to Keep Pushing Apple to Unlock iPhone in New York Case by Devlin Barrett: Justice Department says it will pursue a court order requiring help from Apple.
NYTimes: Why Apple’s Stand Against the F.B.I. Hurts Its Own Customers
NYTimes: Why Apple’s Stand Against the F.B.I. Hurts Its Own Customers by Jamil N. Jaffer and Daniel J. Rosenthal: Two weeks ago, privacy advocates across the country celebrated as the Federal Bureau of Investigation backed off its request for Apple … Continue reading
The Guardian: Stingray ruling could challenge hundreds of Baltimore convictions
The Guardian: Stingray ruling could challenge hundreds of Baltimore convictions by Baynard Woods: Maryland could appeal to supreme court to reverse ruling that found police use of device to track cellphones without warrant in violation of fourth amendment. The Maryland … Continue reading
The Hill: Groups pressure FBI to disclose how it hacked into shooter’s iPhone
The Hill: Groups pressure FBI to disclose how it hacked into shooter’s iPhone by Katie Bo Williams: Technologists and digital rights activists say it’s a mater of public safety.
WaPo: FBI ponders sharing tool to help unlock iPhone with local law agencies
WaPo: FBI ponders sharing tool to help unlock iPhone with local law agencies by Ellen Nakashima and Adam Goldman: The FBI and Justice Department are debating whether the hacking tool that helped the bureau unlock the iPhone of one of … Continue reading
MD: Stringray/Hailstorm cell phone tracking device a search; nondisclosure agreement unconstitutional
The use of a Stingray/Hailstorm device to track a cell phone is a search under the Fourth Amendment. The Nondisclosure Agreement is essentially unconstitutional because of the state’s argument they don’t have to disclose what they were doing. The court … Continue reading
USA Today: 1,000 locked devices in limbo after FBI quits iPhone case
USA Today: 1,000 locked devices in limbo after FBI quits iPhone case by Kevin Johnson and Elizabeth Weise: The government’s surprise decision to withdraw its case against Apple over the San Bernardino killer’s iPhone adds uncertainty to criminal cases where … Continue reading
Cal.1st: Warrantless school search of cell phone on RS justified by T.L.O.
A warrantless search of cell phone in a school was justified by reasonable suspicion under T.L.O. that the student had been in possession of a firearm found at school. There was sufficient exigency for Riley under T.L.O. Alternatively, the search … Continue reading