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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
E.D.Wis.: Merely adding “electronic devices” into a drug SW here was enough to search cell phones found during the search
The drug search warrant for the house included drugs, ledgers, documents, safes, and electronic devices to store information. That was sufficient to authorize a search and forensic analysis of two cell phones found inside. United States v. Robinson, 2015 U.S. … Continue reading
MD: Oral motion to suppress cell phone was waived: neither timely nor specific
Defendant’s oral motion to suppress the contents of his cell phone the morning of trial was neither timely nor specific as to what was to be suppressed, so it’s treated as waived. Sinclair v. State, 2015 Md. LEXIS 496 (July … Continue reading
MD: Davis good faith saves a search incident of a cell phone 3 years before Riley was decided, even though no state case ever said so
Search incident of defendant’s cell phone two and three years before Riley was decided was in Davis good faith based on Robinson [even though no state or Fourth Circuit case had said so]. Demby v. State, 2015 Md. LEXIS 490 … Continue reading
New law review article: The Post-Riley Search Warrant: Search Protocols and Particularity in Cell Phone Searches
Adam M. Gershowitz, The Post-Riley Search Warrant: Search Protocols and Particularity in Cell Phone Searches, William & Mary Law School Research Paper No. 09-313. Abstract: Last year, in Riley v. California, the Supreme Court required police to procure a warrant … Continue reading
IN: Car’s GPS device protected under Riley; SW required
A vehicle’s GPS device is not a container subject to search under the automobile exception. It contains personal data, and it is akin to a cell phone, and a warrant is required under Riley. Wertz v. State, 2015 Ind. App. … Continue reading
M.D.Ga.: DNA taken under state law that was potentially purgable still could be used as evidence in a federal prosecution
Defendant was charged as a first offender under Georgia law, and, if he completed probation successfully, his DNA sample would have been purged from the system. Here, the DNA was matched to another crime when he was still on probation. … Continue reading
DE: Def does not waive suppression motion by FTA; hear it without him
Failure to appear for a suppression hearing is not a waiver of the motion. The court should have conducted the hearing in his absence. Smolka v. State, 2015 Del. LEXIS 308 (June 23, 2015). Defendant called 911 about the pregnant … Continue reading
OR: Seizure of cell phone was seizure of the person, but with RS
Seizure of defendant’s cell phone converted the consensual encounter into a stop, but it was with reasonable suspicion. State v. Hayes, 272 Ore. App. 1 (June 24, 2015). The defendant here tried to extrapolate the use of GPS on somebody … Continue reading
DE: SW needed for hospital medical records; subpoena production suppressed
Implicit in prior case law is that a search warrant is required for medical records in Delaware. The state’s obtaining defendant’s by subpoena is suppressed. State v. Robinson, 2015 Del. C.P. LEXIS 32 (May 15, 2015). Defendant consented to entry … Continue reading
techdirt: CA Legislators Pass Warrant Requirement For Phone Searches, Gut Transparency Stipulations To Appease Law Enforcement
techdirt: CA Legislators Pass Warrant Requirement For Phone Searches, Gut Transparency Stipulations To Appease Law Enforcement by Tim Cushing: The California Senate has passed a bill that creates a warrant requirement for searches of cellphones, tablets and electronic devices. This … Continue reading
NYLJ: How Has Digital Ubiquity Affected Fourth Amendment Law?
NYLJ: How Has Digital Ubiquity Affected Fourth Amendment Law? by Richard Raysman & Peter Brown:
E.D.Mich.: Affidavit for SW for cell phones in RICO conspiracy showed PC that phones were used for planning crimes
In a RICO conspiracy case, the affidavit for a search warrant for cell phones to look for evidence of defendant’s using cell phones to plan crimes adequately showed probable cause to believe evidence of their contact would be found on … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: A cell phone is an “instrumentality” of a drug crime; turning on a cell phone to see if it answers is not a “search”
Defendant’s 12 cell phones could be seized as instrumentalities of a drug crime under a search warrant. Calling a number the officers obtained during a wiretap to identify a phone was not an illegal search. Turning on the phones just … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Giving cell phone to another for use in drug deals is waiver of reasonable expectation of privacy
Giving one’s cell phone over to another to use for drug dealing was a loss of any reasonable expectation of privacy in it. United States v. Brewer, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62260 (M.D.Pa. May 12, 2015):
KS statute tracks Chimel on search incident, and cell phone search was unreasonable (even before Riley was decided)
Defendant was stopped for a headlight being out in 2009. He ended up getting arrested and handcuffed for an open container and then possession of marijuana. The officer got his cell phone and scrolled through it asking about drug transactions. … Continue reading
TX7: Riley applied to cell phone search incident where it came down between trial and appeal
Search incident cannot support a cell phone search under Riley. Riley came down between trial and appeal, so it applies here because the issue was preserved. Carter v. State, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 4271 (Tex. App. – Amarillo April 27, … Continue reading