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- The Intercept: FBI Raid on WaPo Reporter’s Home Was Based on Sham Pretext
- N.D.Ga.: Slight delay in searching a cell phone of a person in custody who couldn’t possess it was reasonable
- D.Kan.: Search incident of a car after DUI arrest was reasonable under Gant
- Cal.2d: NDO in SW to Microsoft doesn’t violate state statute or 1A
- MA: Missing juvenile in BOLO was subject to community caretaking function
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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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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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) -
“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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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: Social media warrants
IN: Failure to execute social media warrant in 10 days per statute did not require suppression where PC still existed
The search warrant on defendant’s social media accounts took longer to be executed than the ten days state statute provided for, but that wasn’t reason to exclude the product of the search. Despite the statutory violation, the real question is … Continue reading
WaPo: Your chatbot keeps a file on you. Here’s how to delete it.
WaPo: Your chatbot keeps a file on you. Here’s how to delete it. by Geoffrey A. Fowler (“A clickable guide to fixing the complicated privacy settings from ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini and Meta AI. … Try this: Log in to … Continue reading
IN: Cell phone and social media SW in murder case had nexus
Defendant was involved in two connected murders, 13½ months apart, one likely retaliation for the other. The state showed probable cause for the warrant for his cell phone and social media accounts. While part was a close call, the requirement … Continue reading
TX8 sustains geofence warrant
TX8, El Paso without much discussion sustains a geofence warrant. Also the warrants for the phone and social media accounts were issued with probable cause and were particular. Alvarez v. State, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 6106 (Tex. App. – El … Continue reading
D.Mass.: SnapChat warrant didn’t go stale after six months [would it ever?]
SnapChat warrant wasn’t stale: “The passage of more than six months between Cardoso’s messages to Pyrtle and issuance of the October 2021 warrant did not undermine probable cause to believe that data from Pyrtle’s Snapchat account would provide evidence of … Continue reading
DE: Instagram SW was narrowly limited by time
Instagram warrants were supported by probable cause showing both that crimes occurred and that evidence would be found in the account, based on the detailed facts in the affidavits. The warrants satisfied the particularity requirement as the date ranges were … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Govt showed exigency for access to public Facebook messages in terrorism investigation
The court assumes defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his private Facebook messages, but holds he did not in his non-private ones. Still, the government successfully argued that it had exigent circumstances for Facebook to reveal messages under … Continue reading
WI: Social media TOS agreements show no REP in CP
The Terms of Service agreements of social media platforms state that they are required by law to report child pornography. Therefore, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in one’s files that are child pornography. State v. Gasper, 2024 Wisc. … Continue reading
FL4: REP in Facebook private messages
(1) Florida’s 4th DCA finds a reasonable expectation of privacy in Facebook private messages as analogous to cell phone text messages. (2) When the records were seized under a warrant for a theft, they couldn’t be searched for evidence of … Continue reading
D.Conn.: LEO accessing public social media accounts doesn’t implicate 4A
A prison security official’s accessing a potential visitor’s social media accounts to determine whether the visitor is some kind of security threat doesn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. Lawrence v. Zack, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161377 (D. Conn. Sep. 9, 2024). … Continue reading
NY Kings: Jurisdiction of the issuing magistrate didn’t matter here
“The fact that the warrant was signed by Justice Tully as an Acting Supreme Court Justice is irrelevant; Justice Tully was authorized to issue the search warrant regardless of whether she was sitting as a Criminal Court Judge or as … Continue reading
D.Mass.: No discovery of covert Shapchat accounts for lack of materiality
Officers set up covert Snapchat accounts to communicate with defendant. He’s not entitled to discovery about that for Brady or Franks purposes because he can’t show materiality. United States v. Stroup, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132483 (D. Mass. July 26, … Continue reading
Reason: Internet Preservation and the Fourth Amendment—Case Updates, Part I
Reason, The Volokh Conspiracy: Internet Preservation and the Fourth Amendment—Case Updates, Part I by Orin S. Kerr (“The first of two rulings, and why I find it unpersuasive.”):
CA6: No REP from ATF getting access to def’s Instagram posts with false name
Defendant is a felon who posted to Instagram pictures of him firing guns. The ATF got access to his account, and he had no reasonable expectation of privacy in it, even where the ATF agent used a fake name to … Continue reading
MN: Jail call to delete Facebook pages because of incriminating information was PC for SW
Defendant told a person he called from jail to delete his Facebook accounts because of potentially incriminating evidence on it. The state showed probable cause and particularity for the Facebook warrant. State v. Sardina-Padilla, 2024 Minn. LEXIS 307 (June 12, … Continue reading
CA4: Alleged dirty cop involved in SW but not at trial wasn’t enough for new trial
An alleged dirty cop who didn’t testify at trial and was part of obtaining the search warrant was not enough to get a new trial. United States v. Banks, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 14273 (4th Cir. June 12, 2024). The … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Preservation request under SCA isn’t a search or seizure
A preservation request under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f) for defendant’s Snapchat account isn’t an unreasonable search or seizure. Even if, “suppression would not be warranted because the FBI acted in good faith reliance on the Stored Communications Act. As a … Continue reading
GFR: Feds Demand Identity Of YouTube Users Who Watched Certain Videos
Giant Freakin Robot: Feds Demand Identity Of YouTube Users Who Watched Certain Videos by April Ryder (“Federal authorities in the U.S. have ordered that Google hand over tens of thousands of names, addresses, phone numbers, and user activity information for … Continue reading