May 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
- OR: Even if original served warrant wasn’t the one returned, it doesn’t warrant suppression
- Two on suicide calls as exigency
- W.D.N.Y.: Civil discovery dispute denies access to other employees’ cell phones as 4A issue
- Reason: All New Cars Could Have Mandatory Surveillance Tech Unless Congress Stops This Mandate
- CA3: In seeking arrest warrants, officers need not present all exculpatory evidence to issuing magistrate unless it’s “conclusive”
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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
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
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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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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: Cell site simulators
CA7: Where there already was PC for def’s arrest warrant, the use of a Stingray to find him didn’t violate any 4A rights
Officers had a warrant for defendant’s arrest for a state parole violation, and they found him in a public place and arrested him. They used a Stingray device to locate him rather than rely on the cell phone company to … Continue reading
The Intercept: Long-Secret Stingray Manuals Detail How Police Can Spy on Phones
The Intercept: Long-Secret Stingray Manuals Detail How Police Can Spy on Phones by Sam Biddle: HARRIS CORP.’S STINGRAY surveillance device has been one of the most closely guarded secrets in law enforcement for more than 15 years. The company and … Continue reading
Morning Consult: Potential FCC Probe of Police Cellphone Trackers Could Serve as Proxy for Congressional Battle
Morning Consult: Potential FCC Probe of Police Cellphone Trackers Could Serve as Proxy for Congressional Battle by Amir Nasr:
M.D.Fla.: CSLI information captured by Stingray would be unreasonable under 4A except defs had no standing in burner phones they disassociated themselves from
Use of a Stingray to capture defendants’ cell phone location information in real time was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment [without much discussion], but the defendants lack standing to complain. The mere fact the government referred to the phones as … Continue reading
New American: New Illinois Law Nullifies Expansion of Surveillance State
New American: New Illinois Law Nullifies Expansion of Surveillance State by Joe Wolverton, II: A new law in Illinois works to protect citizens of that state from being subjected to electronic surveillance that violates their right to be free from … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Warrantless use of stingray device by DEA was unreasonable search
The warrantless use of a cell site simulator to capture information about defendant’s cell phone was a violation of the Fourth Amendment and suppressed. “Thus, even though the DEA believed that the use of the cell-site simulator would reveal the … Continue reading
New American: Illinois Lawmakers Unanimously Pass Ban on Unwarranted Stingray Surveillance
New American: Illinois Lawmakers Unanimously Pass Ban on Unwarranted Stingray Surveillance by Joe Wolverton:
Oklahoma Watch: Okla. Authorities Have or Use Controversial Cellphone Tracker
Oklahoma Watch: Okla. Authorities Have or Use Controversial Cellphone Tracker by Clifton Adcock: At least two Oklahoma law enforcement agencies possess or have used a controversial device, shrouded in secrecy, to track and collect information from cellphones, an Oklahoma Watch … Continue reading
techdirt: EFF, ACLU And Public Records Laws Team Up To Expose Hidden Stingray Use By The Milwaukee Police Department
techdirt: EFF, ACLU And Public Records Laws Team Up To Expose Hidden Stingray Use By The Milwaukee Police Department by Tim Cushing:
eff.org: EFF and ACLU Expose Government’s Secret Stingray Use in Wisconsin Case
eff.org: EFF and ACLU Expose Government’s Secret Stingray Use in Wisconsin Case: Thanks to EFF and the ACLU, the government has finally admitted it secretly used a Stingray to locate a defendant in a Wisconsin criminal case, United States v. … Continue reading
WBAL: Baltimore police sued over cellphone tracking
WBAL: Baltimore police sued over cellphone tracking by David Collins Lawsuit: Police secretly used powerful phone surveillance tool
The Guardian: Stingray ruling could challenge hundreds of Baltimore convictions
The Guardian: Stingray ruling could challenge hundreds of Baltimore convictions by Baynard Woods: Maryland could appeal to supreme court to reverse ruling that found police use of device to track cellphones without warrant in violation of fourth amendment. The Maryland … Continue reading
MD: Stringray/Hailstorm cell phone tracking device a search; nondisclosure agreement unconstitutional
The use of a Stingray/Hailstorm device to track a cell phone is a search under the Fourth Amendment. The Nondisclosure Agreement is essentially unconstitutional because of the state’s argument they don’t have to disclose what they were doing. The court … Continue reading
Memphis Commercial Appeal: Strickland says he can’t discuss city’s use of cell phone eavesdropping device
Memphis Commercial Appeal: Strickland says he can’t discuss city’s use of cell phone eavesdropping device by Ryan Poe: Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland confirmed Monday that the city is using cell phone eavesdropping technology with court approval, but said he couldn’t … Continue reading
Boston Globe: Public kept in the dark about BPD’s use of covert cell trackers
Boston Globe: Public kept in the dark about BPD’s use of covert cell trackers by Shawn Musgrave: The Boston Police Department is keeping the public largely in the dark about how it uses covert cellphone trackers — devices that have … Continue reading
USA Today: U.S. Marshals secretly tracked 6,000 cellphones
USA Today: U.S. Marshals secretly tracked 6,000 cellphones by Brad Heath: Federal marshals have secretly used powerful cellphone surveillance tools to hunt nearly 6,000 suspects throughout the United States, according to newly-disclosed records in which the agency inadvertently identified itself … Continue reading
WaPo: Constitutionality of StingRay use by D.C. police is challenged
WaPo: Constitutionality of StingRay use by D.C. police is challenged by Spencer S. Hsu: Public defenders and civil liberties groups are challenging the constitutionality of the first-known use by local police in the nation’s capital of covert cellphone-tracking technology without … Continue reading
WTTW: Lawmakers Want to Limit Police Use of Stingray Cellphone Trackers
WTTW: Lawmakers Want to Limit Police Use of Stingray Cellphone Trackers by Paris Schutz: Law enforcement agencies on Thursday met with Illinois lawmakers about legislation that would limit the use of new technology that tracks cell phone use.
Salon: The NYPD’s “Big Brother” problem is getting even worse
Salon: The NYPD’s “Big Brother” problem is getting even worse by Daniel Denvir: America’s largest police force has long behaved like an intelligence agency. That hasn’t changed in the Snowden era.
NYTimes: New York Police Dept. Has Used Cellphone Tracking Devices Since 2008, Civil Liberties Group Says
NYTimes: New York Police Dept. Has Used Cellphone Tracking Devices Since 2008, Civil Liberties Group Says by Joseph Goldstein: Covert cellphone tracking devices, which have proliferated in law enforcement agencies across the nation, have been used by the New York … Continue reading