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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Federal Circuit
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)
Google Scholar
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LII State Appellate Courts
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
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Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
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
Google Scholar | Google
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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
NYTimes: Tech Giants Brace for Europe’s New Data Privacy Rules
NYTimes: Tech Giants Brace for Europe’s New Data Privacy Rules by Sheera Frankel: The tech giants are preparing for a stringent new set of data privacy rules in the region, called the General Data Protection Regulation. Set to take effect … Continue reading
D.Nev.: There is no REP from a govt license plate reader’s collection of one’s movements
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy from a government license plate reader collecting information on the movements of one’s car. It can’t be compared to GPS tracking, and it’s not an electronic trespass. United States v. Yang, 2018 U.S. … Continue reading
The Verge: Exclusive: ICE is about to start tracking license plates across the US
The Verge: Exclusive: ICE is about to start tracking license plates across the US by Russell Brandom:
Motherboard: Florida Cop Bought Powerful Phone Malware That Can Intercept Emails and WhatsApp
Motherboard: Florida Cop Bought Powerful Phone Malware That Can Intercept Emails and WhatsApp by Joseph Cox:
New Law Review Article: Surveillance Intermediaries
Alan Z. Rozenshtein, Surveillance Intermediaries, 71 Stan. L. Rev. 99 (2018). Abstract: Apple’s high-profile 2016 fight with the FBI, in which the company challenged a court order commanding it to help unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino … Continue reading
Forbes: 13 Factors To Consider With Smart Home Products
Forbes: 13 Factors To Consider With Smart Home Products by Forbes Technology Council:
WaPo: A Google app that matches your face to artwork is wildly popular. It’s also raising privacy concerns.
WaPo: A Google app that matches your face to artwork is wildly popular. It’s also raising privacy concerns. by Hamza Shaban:
WaPo: Big Brother on wheels: Why your car company may know more about you than your spouse
WaPo: Big Brother on wheels: Why your car company may know more about you than your spouse by Peter Holley:
Gizmodo: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens
Gizmodo: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens by Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu: We can’t know when or if Facebook will ever actually scan digital photos for dust or tap into our phones’ … Continue reading
WIRED: How the Government Hides Secret Surveillance Programs
WIRED: How the Government Hides Secret Surveillance Programs by Louise Matsakis:
Law & Crime: ‘Dark Side’ Federal Unit Feeds Possibly Illegal Tips to Local Cops, Report Says
Law & Crime: ‘Dark Side’ Federal Unit Feeds Possibly Illegal Tips to Local Cops, Report Says by Aaron Keller The Intercept: Welcome to Law Enforcement’s “Dark Side”: Secret Evidence, Illegal Searches, and Dubious Traffic Stops by Trevor Aaronson: Federal agents … Continue reading
WaPo: Beijing bets on facial recognition in a big drive for total surveillance
WaPo: Beijing bets on facial recognition in a big drive for total surveillance by Simon Denyer. Referring to “the security state”:
MI: Electric company’s use of smart meters is not state action for 4A purposes
The electric company’s decision to install smart meters is not a Fourth Amendment issue because the company is a private actor. In re Consumers Energy Co., 2017 Mich. App. LEXIS 2161 (Oct. 10, 2017, published Dec. 28, 2017). The state … Continue reading
D.Haw.: Authorized third party’s access of def’s security video from cloud not unreasonable nor was a SW required
“The evolution of technology gives rise, in this particular case, to the question of whether a third-party’s access to a defendant’s personal home surveillance system stored in the cloud (that is, where managed remotely and made available to users over … Continue reading
The Intercept: Edward Snowden’s New App Uses Your Smartphone to Physically Guard Your Laptop
The Intercept: Edward Snowden’s New App Uses Your Smartphone to Physically Guard Your Laptop Haven uses the smartphone’s many sensors – microphone, motion detector, light detector, and cameras – to monitor the room for changes, and it logs everything it … Continue reading
The Guardian: ‘Tis the season for unfettered government access to your data
The Guardian: ‘Tis the season for unfettered government access to your data by Allie Bohm, Bennett Cyphers and Edward George” Giving a voice-activated device to someone for Christmas? Think again
ClubNorton: Is your child’s connected teddy bear too smart?
ClubNorton: Is your child’s connected teddy bear too smart?:
GIZMODO: Don’t Buy Anyone an Echo
GIZMODO: Don’t Buy Anyone an Echo by Adam Clark Estes: The newfound privacy conundrum presented by installing a device that can literally listen to everything you’re saying represents a chilling new development in the age of internet-connected things. By buying … Continue reading
The Register (UK): Looking through walls, now easier than ever
The Register (UK): Looking through walls, now easier than ever by Thomas Claburn: Boffins working to put everyone in glass houses [Kyllo redux, with better technology]
WaPo: Amazon wants a key to your house. I did it. I regretted it.
WaPo: Amazon wants a key to your house. I did it. I regretted it. by Geoffrey Fisher: Amazon Key might help you avoid package theft, but the smart lock and camera aren’t good enough to warrant giving Amazon control of … Continue reading