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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)
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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
N.D.Cal.: 55 day delay in getting cell phone SW didn’t matter because this was a supervised release revo proceeding, and the exclusionary rule wouldn’t apply
Defendant’s cell phone was seized in an arrest for loitering for pimping. After his probation officer went back and forth with the police, he declined to search it under defendant’s search condition, and 55 days elapsed, and a search warrant … Continue reading
IL: Cell phone search was not subject to community caretaking function where purpose was to call his relatives, but they looked at texts
Defendant’s cell phone was searched four years before Riley, and the state conceded that it applied. So, it argued that the community caretaking function or consent applied, and the court found neither applied. The state argued that the officers searched … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Nexus to crime showed on one phone but not another; second phone suppressed
Information that a cell phone was being used in drug trafficking was nexus to one phone for a search warrant. As to the other phone, probable cause is actually lacking, and the tracking of that phone is suppressed. United States … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Warrantless “peek” into iPhone5 produced 921 pages of information; suppressed because exclusionary rule should apply
The government’s border warrantless “peek” into defendant’s iPhone5 produced 921 pages of incriminating information. The “peek” was unreasonable and led to a search warrant that produced a lot more. Inevitable discovery is also not applied because the risk of data … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Bank fraud conspiracy investigation supported PC for SW for cell phone
In a bank fraud conspiracy, other person’s cell phones had evidence of the conspiracy on them. That led to a fair probability defendant’s phone would, too, based on the PC showing. There was also PC for a tracking device and … Continue reading
The Hill: White House will soon refine its encryption stance
The Hill: White House will soon refine its encryption stance by Gary Bennett: The Obama administration will soon refine its stance on encryption, the White House confirmed on Friday.
N.D.Ga.: Authority to seize electronic media during search implicitly includes searching it later, if need be
A warrant for seizure of electronic media in a house carries with it authority to search it once it’s seized. Here, it was computers and cell phones. “Defendant’s Motion to Suppress [15] raises two questions: first, whether this warrant, which … Continue reading
Thrillist: A Sketchy Hidden Map in Your iPhone Tracks Everywhere You’ve Been
Thrillist: A Sketchy Hidden Map in Your Iphone Tracks Everywhere You’ve Been by Joe McGauley: It’s no secret that Apple has been collecting location data from users for years. But who knew it was so insanely detailed, or how easily … Continue reading
NJLJ: NJ Justices Mull Constitutionality of ‘Roving Surveillance’
NJLJ: NJ Justices Mull Constitutionality of ‘Roving Surveillance’ by Michael Booth: The New Jersey Supreme Court is considering whether to allow law enforcement to tap cellphones without a warrant when a suspect deliberately switches phones to avoid surveillance.
N.D.Ga.: SW for cell phone contemplates later extraction of data
A search warrant to seize and search a phone contemplates extraction of data at a later time. It isn’t logically possible to do it at the time of seizure, and it requires special equipment that usually wouldn’t be brought to … Continue reading
IRS to require warrants for cellphone spying
The Hill: IRS to require warrants for cellphone spying by Julian Hattem: The IRS is pledging to use controversial phone-tracking technology only after acquiring a warrant, a concession announced slightly more than a month after the agency’s use of the … Continue reading
D.Minn.: “other media” showing “address, vehicle, and location of narcotics proceeds” permitted seizure of cell phone
The search warrant authorized seizure of “other media that show standing for an address, vehicle, the location of narcotics proceeds, or a connection between people, addresses and vehicles or that a crime has been committed” and that permitted seizure of … Continue reading
Techdirt: Manhattan DA’s Office Serves Up Craptastic White Paper Asking For A Ban On Encryption
Techdirt: Manhattan DA’s Office Serves Up Craptastic White Paper Asking For A Ban On Encryption by Tim Cushing:
VA: Davis good faith saves SI of a cell phone before Riley; even though no state case permitted it, CA4 did
Defendant’s cell phone was searched without a warrant months before Riley even had its cert grant. Even though no state case held that the warrant requirement applied to cell phones, the Fourth Circuit had concluded that the search incident doctrine … Continue reading
TechDirt: Court Tosses Bogus Wiretapping Charge Against Man Who Recorded Cops Who Raided His House
TechDirt: Court Tosses Bogus Wiretapping Charge Against Man Who Recorded Cops Who Raided His House by Tim Cushing: For many years, law enforcement agencies used (mostly outdated) wiretapping laws to justify arrests and prosecutions of citizens who recorded them during … Continue reading
Govt Technology: Does the Fourth Amendment Trump Your Locked Smartphone?
Govt Technology: Does the Fourth Amendment Trump Your Locked Smartphone? by Daniel Rothberg: Because of recent updates to the encryption on Google and Apple software, newly updated Androids and iPhones no longer can be unlocked — even if law enforcement … Continue reading
AR: When two plan a homicide, it’s reasonable to infer their cell phones have evidence of communications related to the crime, so nexus shown
Where two men were alleged to have planned a homicide, it was reasonable to infer that the cell phone of one of them would have calls between the two planning and executing the murder. Therefore, the affidavit reasonably showed a … Continue reading
CO: Cell phone SW for indicia of ownership did not permit search of every folder in the phone
A cell phone search warrant for indicia of ownership did not permit search of every folder in the phone; that would be a general warrant. People v. Herrera, 2015 CO 60, 2015 Colo. LEXIS 1011 (Oct. 26, 2015). Syllabus by … Continue reading
NYLJ: Judge Grapples With Request for Apple to Decrypt iPhone
NYLJ: Judge Grapples With Request for Apple to Decrypt iPhone by Andrew Keshner: A federal magistrate judge had tough questions Monday for Apple Inc. and federal prosecutors on whether he should compel the technology giant to disable the security features … Continue reading