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- D.Me.: Yes, more investigation could have been done, but there’s still PC on what there was
- CA3: Brady doesn’t apply to SW materials
- E.D.Mich.: Person a cell phone was given to as gift could consent to search
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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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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)
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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. 
Monthly Archives: October 2014
S.D.N.Y.: Riley issue preserved and came down after verdict, but harmless on this record
The motion to suppress a cell phone search under the automobile exception was filed and heard in November before Riley, and defendant was convicted. Before sentencing, Riley came down, and the court asked for briefs. The court concludes the search … Continue reading
CO: While defendant was not an authorized driver of a rental car, she had standing in her own packages in the car
Although defendant was not an authorized driver of the rental car stopped by police for a traffic violation, defendant had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the gift-wrapped packages in that car, which she continually asserted were hers and were … Continue reading
IA: Two people did a private search of a flash drive finding CP; govt search didn’t exceed scope of private search
Defendant loaned his tool bag to a friend who found a flash drive in the bag, and, because of the way it was hidden, he was curious and looked at it finding probable child pornography. Then he called a woman … Continue reading
Reason: How Federal Agents Illegally Force Twitter, Google, and Banks to Turn Over Private Customer Data Without a Proper Warrant
Reason: How Federal Agents Illegally Force Twitter, Google, and Banks to Turn Over Private Customer Data Without a Proper Warrant by Andrew Napolitano: Private companies are fighting the federal government in court over the Patriot Act’s “National Security Letters,” which … Continue reading
FL: Real-time cell site location information is protected under Fourth Amendment
Real-time cell site location information is protected under Fourth Amendment. Tracey v. State, 2014 Fla. LEXIS 3072 (October 16, 2014). This is a fascinating opinion, and it’s the most sensitive review of the issue yet:
W.D.Pa.: Obvious scrivener’s error as to limit of time to execute warrant could be overlooked
A search warrant was issued for defendant’s house, and an obvious scrivener’s error at the time the warrant was issued was entered into the space providing for the latest time when the warrant should be executed. That error could be … Continue reading
NLJ: Oyez Project Dives Deep Into the Fourth Amendment
NLJ: Oyez Project Dives Deep Into the Fourth Amendment by Marcia Coyle: Justice Elena Kagan has called the Fourth Amendment “a growth industry” for the the U.S. Supreme Court. Now the Oyez Project, long a purveyor of high court information, … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Cell site location information was properly obtained by court order
Cell site location information was obtained by court order for defendants’ cell phones to connect them to robberies. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in the location data stored by another and the Stored Communications Act was complied with. … Continue reading
Houston Chronicle: Lawsuit over ‘Texas Takedown’ proceeds despite defendants’ request to dismiss
Houston Chronicle: Lawsuit over ‘Texas Takedown’ proceeds despite defendants’ request to dismiss by Carole Christian: A Montgomery County woman who sued county officials over a home narcotics search that was filmed for reality TV can continue with part of the … Continue reading
The Atlantic: Zap! Should the State Keep Shocking Citizens to Enforce Minor Laws?
The Atlantic: Zap! Should the State Keep Shocking Citizens to Enforce Minor Laws? by Conors Friedersdorf: A man shocked into submission after walking his dog off leash sues, and wins long overdue limits on Taser-happy law enforcement.
WSJ: Police Stops Erode Support From New York Residents [Well, duh]
WSJ: Police Stops Erode Support From New York Residents [Well, duh] by Pervaiz Shallwani: A rare, large-scale police department survey of New York City residents found that the more times a person is stopped by an officer, their favorable view … Continue reading
NLJ: Justice Dept. Phone Data Memo to Remain Secret
NLJ: Justice Dept. Phone Data Memo to Remain Secret: The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to step into a dispute over public access to a secret U.S. Department of Justice memo about the government’s ability to acquire phone data … Continue reading
NYLJ: Circuit Denies Request for New Stop-and-Frisk Panel
NYLJ: Circuit Denies Request for New Stop-and-Frisk Panel by Mark Hamblett: Over the objection of plaintiffs’ lawyers in New York City’s stop-and-frisk litigation, circuit judges Jose Cabranes, Barrington Parker and John Walker-the panel who had blocked Southern District Judge Shira … Continue reading
M.D.La.: Year long seizure of a hard drive without getting a warrant was unreasonable
A computer tech was hired to transfer information from an old hard drive to a new computer in 2007, and he stumbled upon child pornography and called the FBI. They met, and he brought the hard drive. Defendant’s email address … Continue reading
The Root: Ohio Police Change Story and Arrest Couple During Traffic Stop
The Root: Ohio Police Change Story and Arrest Couple During Traffic Stop by Stephen A. Crockett Jr.: A cellphone video of a police stop has gone viral, with a police officer shown telling a couple during a routine traffic stop … Continue reading
USPS Audit Report: Postal Inspection Service Mail Covers Program
Politico: Snail mail snooping safeguards not followed by Josh Gerstein: Cutting-edge data-gathering techniques may have grabbed the spotlight lately, but it turns out the government has been playing fast and loose with a more old-school surveillance method: snail-mail snooping. The … Continue reading
WHO13: Ankeny Cop Tries To Search Car Because ‘Everybody that Plays Frisbee Golf Smokes Weed’
WHO13: Ankeny Cop Tries To Search Car Because ‘Everybody that Plays Frisbee Golf Smokes Weed’ by Aaron Brilbeck: ANKENY, Iowa — Ankeny’s police chief is apologizing after a video surfaced showing an officer trying to search a motorist’s car because, … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Def can’t challenge the search and seizure of a computer server in Iceland because he claims no interest in it or its information
In the Silk Road case, defendant can’t challenge the search and seizure of a computer server in Iceland in 2013 because he claims no interest in it or its information. United States v. Ulbricht, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 145553 (S.D.N.Y. … Continue reading