July 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Archives
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Recent Posts
- CA11: Yahoo not a govt actor in scanning emails for CSAM
- Treatise 25% off through 7/8
- SCOTUS: Geofence warrants governed by Carpenter and are a search; remanded for resolution of issues (interesting take on third party doctrine, too)
- The Guardian: ‘It’s dangerous and it’s going to erode trust’: redesign of US government websites stokes surveillance fears
- W.D.N.Y.: Possibility of co-conspirators in mass murder justified emergency disclosure request to Apple, Verizon, and Facebook
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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 -
Latest Slip Opinions:
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Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
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Solicitor General's site
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Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
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S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
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General (many free):
LexisWeb
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Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
F.R.Crim.P. 41
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
Privacy Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
Section 1983 Blog -
"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: Surveillance technology
NYT: Barr Revives Encryption Debate, Calling on Tech Firms to Allow for Law Enforcement
NYT: Barr Revives Encryption Debate, Calling on Tech Firms to Allow for Law Enforcement by Katie Benner: The attorney general, reopening the conversation on security vs. privacy, said that encryption and other measures effectively turned devices into “law-free zones.”
BuzzFeed News: Opinion: Don’t Regulate Facial Recognition. Ban It.
BuzzFeed News: Opinion: Don’t Regulate Facial Recognition. Ban It. by Evan Greer: We are on the verge of a nightmare era of mass surveillance by the state and private companies. It’s not too late to stop it.
The Atlantic: FaceApp Makes Today’s Privacy Laws Look Antiquated
The Atlantic: FaceApp Makes Today’s Privacy Laws Look Antiquated by Tiffany C. Li: Cameras are everywhere, and data brokers are vacuuming up information on individuals. But regulations have not kept pace.
Bloomberg: You’re Home Alone With Alexa. Are Your Secrets Safe?
Bloomberg: You’re Home Alone With Alexa. Are Your Secrets Safe? by Matt Day
Forbes: Are Conversational Interfaces The ‘Foot In The Door’ For Government Surveillance?
Forbes: Are Conversational Interfaces The ‘Foot In The Door’ For Government Surveillance? by Ilker Koksal: Amazon Echo, released in 2014, introduced voice software into the home, quickly followed by Google Home, Apples’s HomePod and other generic smart speakers. In fact, … Continue reading
NYTimes: How Dangerous Is Facial Recognition Technology?
NYTimes: How Dangerous Is Facial Recognition Technology? by Sahil Chinoy: When will we finally learn we cannot predict people’s character from their appearance?
NYTimes: Opinion: The Racist History Behind Facial Recognition
NYTimes: Opinion: The Racist History Behind Facial Recognition When will we finally learn we cannot predict people’s character from their appearance?
WaPo Podcast: The FBI and ICE are scanning millions of Americans’ faces — without their knowledge or consent
WaPo Podcast: The FBI and ICE are scanning millions of Americans’ faces — without their knowledge or consent
Slate: Facebook’s Face-ID Database Could Be the Biggest in the World. Yes, It Should Worry Us.
Slate: Facebook’s Face-ID Database Could Be the Biggest in the World. Yes, It Should Worry Us. by April Glaser: Every day, Facebook users upload hundreds of millions of photos to the social network. If they haven’t opted out, the software … Continue reading
Casino.org: Gaming Venues May Scrutinize Biometric and Facial Monitoring of Patrons as Privacy Laws Enacted
Casino.org: Gaming Venues May Scrutinize Biometric and Facial Monitoring of Patrons as Privacy Laws Enacted by Ed Silverstein: Casinos could increasingly become part of a national debate on how to regulate and use biometric surveillance and related high-tech methods of … Continue reading
Forbes: Apple Publicly Trolls Google Over Controversial Smart City Surveillance Plans
Forbes: Apple Publicly Trolls Google Over Controversial Smart City Surveillance Plans by Zak Doffman:
NYTimes: How to Protect Your Digital Privacy
NYTimes: How to Protect Your Digital Privacy by Thorin Klosowski: By making a few simple changes to your devices and accounts, you can maintain security against outside parties’ unwanted attempts to access your data as well as protect your privacy … Continue reading
NYTimes: As Cameras Track Detroit’s Residents, a Debate Ensues Over Racial Bias
NYTimes: As Cameras Track Detroit’s Residents, a Debate Ensues Over Racial Bias by Amy Harmon: Studies have shown that facial recognition software can return more false matches for African-Americans than for white people, a sign of what experts call “algorithmic … Continue reading
Reason: Is Facial Recognition the New Fingerprinting—or Something Much Worse?
Reason: Is Facial Recognition the New Fingerprinting—or Something Much Worse? by Ronald Bailey: State DMVs are building a vast national digital identification database for federal law enforcement.
WaPo: DMV databases become part of unprecedented surveillance infrastructure: Facial recognition
WaPo: DMV databases become part of unprecedented surveillance infrastructure by Drew Harwell: The FBI and ICE have turned state driver’s license databases into a facial-recognition gold mine, scanning through hundreds of millions of Americans’ photos without their knowledge or consent, … Continue reading
The Hill: Cities lead crackdown on facial recognition tech
The Hill: Cities lead crackdown on facial recognition tech by Emily Birnbaum:
TechCrunch: Amazon responds to a US senator’s inquiry, confirms Alexa voice records are kept indefinitely
TechCrunch: Amazon responds to a US senator’s inquiry, confirms Alexa voice records are kept indefinitely by Sarah Perez: Amazon has responded to a letter of inquiry it received from U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) that asks the company to detail … Continue reading
The Atlantic: The Strange Politics of Facial Recognition
The Atlantic: The Strange Politics of Facial Recognition by Sidney Fussell: Everyone seems to have found common ground on the emerging technology. That’s exactly what its makers want.
NYTimes: Opinion: A Major Police Body Cam Company Just Banned Facial Recognition
NYTimes: Opinion: A Major Police Body Cam Company Just Banned Facial Recognition: Its ethics board says the technology is not reliable enough to justify using.
WaPo: Data brokers are selling your secrets. Some states are trying to stop them. It isn’t easy.
WaPo: Data brokers are selling your secrets. Some states are trying to stop them. It isn’t easy. By Douglas MacMillan: Vermont’s new data broker registry highlights the difficulties of regulating dozens of secretive firms that buy and sell the personal … Continue reading