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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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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)
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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
WaPo: DOJ petitions for rehearing in Eleventh Circuit cell-site case
WaPo: DOJ petitions for rehearing in Eleventh Circuit cell-site case by Orin Kerr: The Justice Department has filed a petition for rehearing en banc in United States v. Davis, the Eleventh Circuit case holding that acquiring historical cell-site data is … Continue reading
WaPo: Judge orders Microsoft to turn over data held overseas
WaPo: Judge orders Microsoft to turn over data held overseas by Ellen Nakashima:
Law.com: Storm Brewing Over Feds’ Use of Cell Tower Info
Law.com: Storm Brewing Over Feds’ Use of Cell Tower Info: A federal magistrate wants Melinda Haag’s office to explain why a warrant shouldn’t be required to obtain locations of mobile phone users.
ACLU Urges SF Federal Court to Tackle Warrantless Cell Tracking
ACLU Urges SF Federal Court to Tackle Warrantless Cell Tracking by Nicole A. Ozer: When the government demands that your cell phone carrier reveal information about where you’ve been, or where you’re going to go, they should get a warrant. … Continue reading
EFF: A National Consensus: Cell Phone Location Records Are Private
EFF: A National Consensus: Cell Phone Location Records Are Private by Hanni Fakhoury: It’s clear that people consider location information-which can reveal who we associate with, our patterns of movement, and things like religion, sexual practices, and political affiliations-to remain … Continue reading
AOL Autoblog: UK police move to seize mobile phones after all accidents
Be thankful for the Fourth Amendment: AOL Autoblog: UK police move to seize mobile phones after all accidents by Noah Joseph: There’s little question that driving while holding your phone is incredibly dangerous. In the UK alone, some 500 people … Continue reading
D.Md.: Riley cell phone case has no effect on border searches of cell phones
Posted back on April 8th: “[U]nder the facts presented by this case, a forensic computer search cannot be performed under the border search doctrine in the absence of reasonable suspicion. Because the officials here reasonably suspected that Saboonchi was violating … Continue reading
WI: There is a reasonable expectation of privacy in CSLI, but it is subject to exigent circumstances in a proper case
There is a reasonable expectation of privacy in CSLI, but it is subject to exigent circumstances in a proper case. State v. Subdiaz-Osorio, 2014 WI 87, 2014 Wisc. LEXIS 502 (July 24, 2014): [*P5] This case presents two issues for … Continue reading
WI: Prior statutory authority is not required to get CSLI and use of a stringray as long as there was a warrant issued on PC
Prior statutory authority is not required to get cell site location data and use of a stringray as long as there was a warrant issued on probable cause. State v. Tate, 2014 WI 89, 2014 Wisc. LEXIS 504 (July 24, … Continue reading
MO Voters to decide electronic privacy matter Aug. 5
MO Voters to decide electronic privacy matter Aug. 5 by Amanda Lubinski: Warrensburg – Voters statewide will decide Aug. 5 whether to add electronic data and communications to the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment property protections. Missouri Constitutional Amendment No. 9, … Continue reading
WaPo: Wiretaps can’t keep pace with new technology
WaPo: Wiretaps can’t keep pace with new technology by Ellen Nakashima: Federal law enforcement and intelligence authorities say they are increasingly struggling to conduct court-ordered wiretaps on suspects because of a surge in chat services, instant messaging and other online … Continue reading
Journal Sentinel: State Supreme Court backs police in cellphone tracking
Journal Sentinel: State Supreme Court backs police in cellphone tracking by Bruce Vielmetti: The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday continued its recent string of Fourth Amendment decisions, this time in two divided rulings upholding warrantless searches to track suspects through … Continue reading
S.D.Cal.: Reasonable suspicion supported border search of 5 cell phones
Officers had reasonable suspicion that defendant was involved in alien smuggling when she crossed the border at San Ysidro. When she was sent for secondary inspection, the five cell phones she had could be searched under Cotterman. United States v. … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: Pre-Riley search incident of cell phone saved by Davis GFE
Pre-Riley search incident of cell phone was valid in the Fifth Circuit under the Davis good faith exception. The defendant’s trial concluded eight days before Riley was decided, and he raised the issue. United States v. Spears, 2014 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
KC Star: Question of electronic privacy on Missouri’s August ballot
KC Star: Question of electronic privacy on Missouri’s August ballot by Caroline Baumanthe: Many Missouri lawmakers think an amendment on the Aug. 5 ballot will bring privacy protection in the state into the 21st Century. Amendment 9 would change the … Continue reading
Latin Post: Despite Supreme Court Ruling, Smartphones Can Still Be Searched by Border Cops
Latin Post: Despite Supreme Court Ruling, Smartphones Can Still Be Searched by Border Cops by Robert Schoon: But don’t expect the Supreme Court’s limitations to impact all law enforcement, because, as Aaron Sankin detailed on the Daily Dot, the United … Continue reading
WaPo: Riley won, but will Riley benefit from it?
WaPo: Riley won, but will Riley benefit from it? by Orin Kerr: The Supreme Court gave a big victory to criminal defendants last week when it held in Riley v. California that the police need a warrant to search a … Continue reading