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Recent Posts
- N.D.Tex.: AUSA can summarize what the gov’t knows for SW application
- S.D.N.Y.: No right to quash SCA warrant before execution; remedies are after
- S.D.N.Y.: SW not based on mere speculation
- D.Mont.: Officers had RS for stop; it wasn’t based on the race of the suspects
- M.D.Pa.: SW for phone 19 months after alleged crimes showed PC
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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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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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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)
ACLU on privacy
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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.Mich.: Civil Franks violation was “well established” and QI denied
Plaintiff was arrested for child sexual abuse. The child recanted, and the prosecutor involved was disbarred for misconduct in this case. Plaintiff’s claim for a Franks violation was well established by 1978, and qualified immunity denied. MacMaster v. Busacca, 2025 … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Alleged mishandling of drugs during execution of SW didn’t make them inadmissible
Even if the officers (mis)handled the drugs during the search, they’d still come into evidence at trial. United States v. McDonald, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11844 (N.D. Ohio Jan. 22, 2025). The trial court suppressed this cell phone search as … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: Compelling defendant to unlock his phone was a 5A testimonial act
Compelling defendant to unlock his phone was a testimonial act under Hubbell, and it had to be suppressed. (Deciding the Fifth Amendment claim moots need to decide the Fourth Amendment claim.) United States v. Brown, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 1219 … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: USPO can turn phone seized in supervised release over to FBI
It was not improper for the PO to turn defendant’s phone over to the FBI to search it when it was already lawfully seized. “This is not a stalking horse case.” The delay was not unreasonable. United States v. Fuller, … Continue reading
CA10: Parole supervisor could conduct parole search
The fact a parole supervisor conducted the parole search and not a “parole officer” doesn’t make the parole search unreasonable. United States v. Barron, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 258 (10th Cir. Jan. 7, 2025). Plaintiff’s First Amended Complaint is more … Continue reading
OR: REP in cell phone lost when it was loaned to another
Defendant waived any reasonable expectation of privacy in this smartphone by loaning it to another [even under Oregon’s more stringent abandonment standards]. Here, it was completely out of his control because he loaned it to a young woman, and her … Continue reading
MT: Cell phone probation search condition based on generalizations of cell phones and crime was unreasonable
This cell phone probation search condition based on generalizations of cell phones and crime was unreasonable. State v. LeDeau, 2024 MT 305 (Dec. 17, 2024). Plaintiff makes numerous claims against a city short term rental ordinance, including a Fourth Amendment … Continue reading
OH10: Suicidal domestic call followed by ShotSpotter alert was RS
Police had a call about a domestic situation with a suicidal man with a gun. Shortly thereafter, there was a ShotSpotter alert of 20 gunshots from a house nearby. Officers arrived and patted down those found there. This is substantially … Continue reading
NY3: “Common sense” that a drug dealer might have evidence on his cell phone isn’t PC
Just because defendant was a suspected drug dealer, there wasn’t probable cause for searching his cell phone. “While [officer] Bruno recounted that there was a quantity of drugs found in the motel room, along with the two phones, he did … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Copying electronic device for delayed search is not per se unreasonable
In an electronic search, the government copied the device’s memory for later search, and the probable cause did not get stale during the delay. Because of the capacity of electronic devices, this is the most efficient manner of searching. United … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: PC and nexus to cell phone shown by drug deal arranged on an app
Probable cause and a nexus to defendant’s phone was shown because of arranging drug transactions through its apps. United States v. Hughes, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 219482 (E.D. Mich. Dec. 4, 2024). Probable cause didn’t have to be decided because … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Ptf’s claim judge’s signature on SW was forged fails for not even alleging there was a search
“The plaintiff similarly alleges that Miller forged a judge’s signature on a search warrant. But he does not say anything else about this search warrant. Did law enforcement execute the search warrant? What, or where, did they search? Did they … Continue reading
Leftovers
2255 petitioner fails to show grounds for a CoA from his search claims, without telling us the rationale. United States v. Renteria, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 30239 (5th Cir. Nov. 26, 2024).* Defendant’s stop and frisk was without reasonable suspicion. … Continue reading
D.Or.: Taking iPhone 6 apart and putting new firmware to make it work wasn’t a “search” for information
Taking an iPhone 6 apart, putting it back together, and installing new firmware to make it work was not a “search” because that process was not to obtain information. [Well, that was the ultimate goal, wasn’t it?] United States v. … Continue reading
CA8: Pro se def’s standby counsel not ineffective at suppression hearing; not counsel’s role
Defendant chose to go pro se at the suppression hearing, grudgingly accepting standby counsel. After the motion to suppress was denied, he claimed ineffective assistance by standby counsel for not doing more. But that’s not standby counsel’s role. United States … Continue reading
techdirt: Two Missouri Cops Are Facing Criminal Charges For Helping Themselves To Nude Photos Found On Drivers’ Phones
techdirt: Two Missouri Cops Are Facing Criminal Charges For Helping Themselves To Nude Photos Found On Drivers’ Phones by Tim Cushing, updating this post from 11/15
LA5: Defense attorney’s email about evidence on phone not protected by attorney-client privilege
A defense attorney’s email about evidence on a cell phone was used to get authority to search and seize the phone. Defendant claimed privilege; the state claimed that defense counsel was obligated to turn over material evidence. It was not … Continue reading
NBC: 2 Missouri officers accused of stealing nude photos from dozens of women’s phones at traffic stops
NBC: 2 Missouri officers accused of stealing nude photos from dozens of women’s phones at traffic stops by Austin Mullen and Doha Madani (“Two former Missouri officers were charged in separate, unconnected cases in federal court this week over allegations … Continue reading