Archives
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Recent Posts
- TN: RS didn’t develop to continue stop; second stop based on first suppressed
- CA4: Traffic stop immediately became firearms investigation; suppressed
- CA10: Disagreement over spelling of street name didn’t make warrant fail particularity; GFE at least would apply
- VA: Statutory requirement to provide SW papers only applies to “places of abode”
- D.Idaho: Not unreasonable for PO to hand over def’s cell phone to LEO for extraction after RS developed from Snapchat app
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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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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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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) -
“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 site simulators
Shawdowproof: Detroit Police Spent More than Half Million Dollars on Cell-site Simulator to Track People’s Locations
Shawdowproof: Detroit Police Spent More than Half Million Dollars on Cell-site Simulator to Track People’s Locations by Camille Fassett:
Cal.4th: Use of cell site simulator with SW was reasonable
The use of a cell site simulator with a search warrant to locate defendant’s cell phone was reasonable. The issue on appeal was whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying a motion to continue while the defense tried … Continue reading
The Hill: Are the Chinese and Russians listening to your phone calls?
The Hill: Are the Chinese and Russians listening to your phone calls? by Julian Gehman with cell site simulators? I’m not worried about them listening to mine because I only bitch about Russians and I’m 1,000 miles away, but too … Continue reading
FL: Use of Stringray to find def to arrest him was valid or valid under GFE
The use of a Stingray cell site simulator to find defendant to find him to arrest him didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. Even if it did, the good faith exception makes it valid here. Andres v. State, 2018 Fla. LEXIS … Continue reading
FL4: Use of cell site simulator requires SW
Warrantless use of a cell site simulator to capture cell phone calls violates the Fourth Amendment. That information was used to get a search warrant for CSLI. State v. Sylvestre, 2018 Fla. App. LEXIS 12671 (Fla. 4th DCA Sep. 6, … Continue reading
WaPo: FBI surveillance devices may interfere with 911 calls, U.S. senator says
WaPo: FBI surveillance devices may interfere with 911 calls, U.S. senator says by Aaron Gregg: In a letter to the Justice Department, Sen. Ron Wyden raised the concern that Stingray phone surveillance devices could “completely disrupt” cell services, citing conversations … Continue reading
CA4: Ptf’s 1983 claim a Stingray was used on him survives Heck bar
Plaintiff’s claim that he was the subject of unlawful surveillance with a Stingray survives a Heck challenge and can proceed. Marcantoni v. Bealefeld, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 22798 (4th Cir. Aug. 16, 2018):
D.D.C.: Def’s IAC claim a Stingray was used was speculative at best; govt already had plenty from lawful sources
Even if a Stingray was used to get defendant’s information, which is speculative at best, the government lawfully used a host of other information gathering devices and orders to get the same information. Therefore, he wasn’t prejudiced. IAC claim denied. … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Cell-site simulator requires SW; state law doesn’t permit federal officers to execute state SW
(1) The government’s disclaiming a critical fact in the affidavit for search warrant undermines the probable cause vitiating the warrant. (2) “Use of a cell-site simulator requires a warrant. See United States v. Ellis, 270 F. Supp. 3d 1134, 1141-46 … Continue reading
WaPo: Signs of sophisticated cellphone spying found near White House, U.S. officials say
WaPo: Signs of sophisticated cellphone spying found near White House, U.S. officials say by Craig Timberg:
US News & World Report: Judge: NYPD Cellphone Tracking Tech to Remain Secret
US News & World Report: Judge: NYPD Cellphone Tracking Tech to Remain Secret by AP: The New York Police Department won’t have to release details about its portable cellphone tracking system commonly known as Stingrays.”
Wired: DC’s Stingray Mess Won’t Get Cleaned Up
Wired: DC’s Stingray Mess Won’t Get Cleaned Up by Lily Hay Newman:
InCyberDefense: IMSI Catchers Revive a Heated Debate on Privacy versus Security
InCyberDefense: IMSI Catchers Revive a Heated Debate on Privacy versus Security by Wes O’Donnell. States where used:
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:
CA11: Def argued there was no authority for use of a cell site simulator to track him; police had a tracking warrant issued on PC, and that’s all that’s required
Defendant was arrested coming out of a Dollar General Store, and officers smelled marijuana around his car. Even though defendant wasn’t in it, the car was still “mobile” for automobile exception purposes, and the smell provided probable cause. Defendant also … Continue reading
NY Kings Co.: Claim def was Stingrayed was speculative; hearing to be set on CSLI
The same cell phone was used to set up three Craigslist robberies. Defendant’s claim that a cell site simulator was used to track his number is speculative at best and is rejected. He gets a hearing, however, on whether the … Continue reading
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
DE: SW materials reviewed on PCR to find no motion to suppress would be granted
Defendant was charged with rape of his daughter occurring daily for years. Defense counsel saw no reason to file a motion to suppress the search warrants for the house for the vibrator the victim described was used on her. Reviewing … Continue reading
AP (via ABC): Does cellphone-sweeping ‘StingRay’ technology go too far?
AP (via ABc): Does cellphone-sweeping ‘StingRay’ technology go too far? by Colleen Long:
BuzzFeed: DHS Has Used A Controversial Cell Phone–Tracking Device More Than 1,800 Times
BuzzFeed: DHS Has Used A Controversial Cell Phone–Tracking Device More Than 1,800 Times by Adolfo Flores: The information, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, shows that Homeland Security Investigations, a major investigative arm of DHS, used what’s known … Continue reading