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- CA6: Knowing passcode to cell phone shows common authority over it to consent
- VI: Smell of MJ no longer PC in VI since legalization
- Reason: 3 Charlotte Cops Resign After Group Chat Reveals Competition To Arrest the Most Black People
- E.D.Mich.: Second SW for cell phone data retained by govt was valid
- S.D.W.Va.: “Shocking” nature of immigration raid on a Mexican restaurant at lunchtime didn’t warrant suppression
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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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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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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: Prison and jail searches
MI: No REP in overheard jail conversations between cells recorded through intercoms
Defendants were in jail together, in separate cells 20′ apart (#1 & #4) and talking about their case through the doors’ openings. Jailers could overhear them. “When jail personnel noticed that defendants were communicating with each other by speaking loudly … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Private prison’s recording of attorney-client calls states a claim
A criminal defense lawyer stated a claim against a private prison operator under the wiretapping laws for recording attorney-client calls. Bliss v. Corecivic, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10953 (D.Nev. Jan. 18, 2022). 2254 petitioner’s illegal search claim barred by Stone. … Continue reading
CA9: Public electric utility cutting off one’s power is not a 4A seizure
The public electric utility cutting off one’s power is not a Fourth Amendment seizure. Lull v. County of Sacramento, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 1408 (9th Cir. Jan. 19, 2022). There was probable cause on the totality, including a showing of … Continue reading
N.D.Okla.: Cross designated tribal officer could obtain state SW then used in federal court
A Cherokee Nation officer was cross-deputized to act for the “City of Tulsa, the State of Oklahoma, the United States, and the Cherokee Nation.” “Second, the Supreme Court has found that reviewing courts should give ‘great deference’ to a magistrate’s … Continue reading
NY Kings Co.: Police led def to believe call from interrogation room was private
Defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his telephone call from a precinct interrogation room from being recorded. While there is a diminished expectation of privacy in an interrogation room, there was no warning what happened in the room … Continue reading
Vice: Prison Phone Companies Are Recording Attorney-Client Calls Across the US
Vice: Prison Phone Companies Are Recording Attorney-Client Calls Across the US (“Lawyers say their conversations with incarcerated people are being recorded and analyzed by private companies in at least nine US states.”)
W.D.N.Y.: For Stone, the federal courts don’t second-guess the state court’s 4A decisions
“While those facts do not necessarily compel the conclusion that the warrantless search of the garbage tote was justified by the emergency exception, that is not the question before me. As stated, it is not this Court’s function to second-guess … Continue reading
CA3: Coast Guard needs only RS to board a vessel to inspect the Oil Record Book about pollution
The Coast Guard had the authority under 14 U.S.C. § 522(a) to conduct a pollution inspection of defendant’s vessel and look at the Oil Record Book. “The Coast Guard’s preliminary examination of the Oil Record Book and Oily Water Separator … Continue reading
MS: No REP in contraband cell phone in prison
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a contraband cell phone in prison. United States v. Jackson, 866 F.3d 982 (8th Cir. 2017). Walker v. State, 2021 Miss. App. LEXIS 502 (Dec. 7, 2021). Accord: United States v. Basaldua, … Continue reading
TN: No standing in text messages on codef’s cell phone
Defense counsel could not be ineffective for not moving to suppress text messages on the codefendant’s cell phone where defendant had no standing. Wells v. State, 2021 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 553 (Dec. 7, 2021). There is no reasonable expectation … Continue reading
NY4: Minor typos in SW application don’t void the warrant
“We reject defendant’s contention that the search warrant for his cell phones was issued without probable cause. According ‘great deference to the issuing [Justice]’ …, we conclude that Supreme Court properly determined that there was sufficient information in the warrant … Continue reading
IA: No REP in attorney call from interrogation room
Defendant’s in-custody call to his attorney was overheard by the recording system in the room. There was no reasonable expectation of privacy where it was made. Luthi v. Neis, 2021 Iowa App. LEXIS 930 (Nov. 3, 2021). The trial court … Continue reading
NY3: Tossing backpack from one’s window into the window of the abandoned house next door to avoid seizure is a waiver of REP
When the police came to his house, defendant threw a backpack with a sawed-off rifle from his second floor window into a window of the house next door. He claimed that house was his uncle’s, but it was unsecured and … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Prison law librarians can examine papers to determine whether there’s a litigation deadline to manage library access
“Librarian Winters’ request to see Ivy’s legal documents to verify that he had upcoming deadlines also serves the DOC’s interest in institutional order and management of resources by balancing an individual inmate’s need for additional law library time with the … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: Three day seizure of inmate’s legal papers was reasonable
Jail seizure of plaintiff’s legal papers for three days was not unreasonable. “Here, Plaintiff has not shown that the seizure of his personal property by jail officials—during a disturbance he created—violated his rights under the Fourth Amendment. And Plaintiff acknowledges … Continue reading
The Intercept: Federal Prisons’ Switch To Scanning Mail Is A Surveillance Nightmare
The Intercept: Federal Prisons’ Switch To Scanning Mail Is A Surveillance Nightmare (“The Bureau of Prisons has piloted a program that can give authorities ‘huge secret intelligence into the public sender of postal mail.’”) Politico: Covert Postal Service unit probed … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Def had no REP in sister’s bedroom
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy to contest the search of his sister’s bedroom. United States v. Slater, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 180673 (E.D.Wis. Sept. 22, 2021). There was probable cause for search of defendant’s car, and the opportunity … Continue reading
CA8: Unnecessary prolonged handcuffing of ptf overcame QI; if there was a reason for it, it had long passed
Plaintiff overcame qualified immunity here because he was unnecessarily left handcuffed without any objective reason for it. There was no reasonable suspicion. Haynes v. Minnehan, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 28550 (8th Cir. Sept. 21, 2021). In this prison search case, … Continue reading
D.Conn.: No REP in parolee’s GPS monitor that placed him at scene of murder
The search warrant for defendant’s phone to attempt to link him to a murder of a witness was based on probable cause that he was seen in a car likely involved and his parole GPS monitor that put him there. … Continue reading
CA3: Carpenter just doesn’t apply to jail call recordings
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in jail calls admitted to prove a conspiracy, and Carpenter doesn’t apply. “While we need not decide how far Carpenter extends to other technologies, it does not apply to prison phone calls. Unlike … Continue reading