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- GA: Raising particularity in half of one sentence of argument isn’t a presentation of the issue
- Reason: Homeland Security Is Monitoring Activists Building Anti-Flock Tech
- W.D.Pa.: Def can’t repackage a losing 4A standing claim into a due process claim
- GA: No case says SW required to ask for cell phone password
- VA: Body cam video of valid arrest would not be suppressed
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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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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)
ACLU on privacy
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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. 
Category Archives: Computer and cloud searches
CA8: A 1 in 11 chance homeowner had CP on computer was enough for qualified immunity; search turned up nothing and he lost job then home
Child pornography was able to be downloaded from plaintiff’s IP address, so Minot police got a search warrant for plaintiff’s address, which appeared to be a single family dwelling. When they got there, however, they learned that 11 people lived … Continue reading
NYLJ: Computer Searches: A ‘General’ Warrant Can No Longer Satisfy Requirements
NYLJ: Computer Searches: A ‘General’ Warrant Can No Longer Satisfy Requirements by Roger L. Stavis (May 19, 2017):
Constitution Center: A Twenty-First Century Framework for Digital Privacy
Constitution Center: A Twenty-First Century Framework for Digital Privacy: Balancing Privacy and Security in the Digital Age by Jeffrey Rosen: Introduction: A Twenty-First Century Framework for Digital Privacy At the beginning of the twenty-first century, breathtaking changes in technology pose … Continue reading
EFF: The Fight Against General Warrants to Hack Rages On
EFF: The Fight Against General Warrants to Hack Rages On by Kate Tummarllo: The federal government thinks it should be able to use one warrant to hack into an untold number of computers located anywhere in the world. But EFF … Continue reading
Just Security: New White Paper Series: 21st Century Framework for Digital Privacy
Just Security: New White Paper Series: 21st Century Framework for Digital Privacy by Jennifer Daskal:
SC Media: San Francisco agency wants warrantless data from connected car crashes of self-driving cars
SC Media: San Francisco agency wants warrantless data from connected car crashes by Robert Abel:
Cal.4th: Probation search for “property” does not include “electronic data”
The juvenile’s probation search condition for his “property” does not reasonably include electronic data. In re I.V., 2017 Cal. App. LEXIS 392 (4th Dist. April 28, 2017):
ars technica: FBI allays some critics with first use of new mass-hacking warrant
ars technica: FBI allays some critics with first use of new mass-hacking warrant by Aliya Sternstein: Judge authorized order allowing US to change data in thousands of infected devices. Mass hacking seems to be all the rage currently. A vigilante … Continue reading
WaPo: Border agents can look at everything on your cell phone. Congress should change that (editorial)
WaPo: Border agents can look at everything on your cell phone. Congress should change that (editorial): PRETTY MUCH everyone can agree that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents should be able to freely search travelers’ bags at the border. Their … Continue reading
NYTimes: Border Officers Nearly Double Searches of Electronic Devices, US Says
NYTimes: Border Officers Nearly Double Searches of Electronic Devices, US Says by Ron Nixon:
N.D.Ill.: Def’s actions gave RS for cell phone and computer searches when he came into O’Hare from the Philippines; he’d already been selected for secondary inspection
Defendant arrived at O’Hare on a flight from the Philippines. The government described how they took the passenger manifest of incoming flights and looked for likely candidates for a secondary search of computers and cell phones. Defendant had been there … Continue reading
D.Me.: CC fraud case led to PC def’s computer had “victim information” on it
Defendant was arrested for credit card fraud, and he had a computer in his vehicle. There was probable cause as to his computer and reasonable to issue a search warrant for “victim information.” United States v. Febles, 2017 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
NBC: Comey: FBI Couldn’t Access Hundreds of Devices Because of Encryption
NBC: Comey: FBI Couldn’t Access Hundreds of Devices Because of Encryption by Tom Winter, Tracy Connor and Pete Williams: On a day when civil liberties groups were expressing alarm at the tools the CIA has apparently developed for using electronic … Continue reading
Tenth Amendment Center: To the Governor: Montana Passes Bill to Ban Warrantless Collection of Electronic Data
Tenth Amendment Center: To the Governor: Montana Passes Bill to Ban Warrantless Collection of Electronic Data by Mike Maharrey:
EFF: The Bill of Rights at the Border: Fourth Amendment Limits on Searching Your Data and Devices
EFF: The Bill of Rights at the Border: Fourth Amendment Limits on Searching Your Data and Devices by Stephanie Lacambra:
W.D.Mo.: Email SW to Google was particular, and target has no 4A right to notice of the SW
“Courts have repeatedly upheld courts’ ability to issue warrants outside their respective district under the S[tored] C[communications] A[ct]. The computer system was in California with Google. The email warrant was for nearly everything for 13 months, and it wasn’t overbroad. … Continue reading
FL4: REP in a vehicle’s black box, and a SW required to access it
There is a reasonable expectation of privacy in information held in a vehicle’s black box, and a search warrant is required to access it. State v. Worsham, 2017 Fla. App. LEXIS 4162 (Fla. 4th DCA March 29, 2017):
New law review article: Encryption Workarounds
New law review article: Encryption Workarounds by Orin S. Kerr & Bruce Schneier: Abstract:
D.Minn.: USMJ recommends Playpen warrant be suppressed
R&R recommends Playpen warrant be suppressed. United States v. Carlson, 16-cr-00317-JRT-FLN (D. Minn. March 23, 2017). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not challenging the particularity of the search warrant in this case. “In our view, the warrant describes the character … Continue reading
The Guardian: Man jailed until he unlocks encrypted hard drives in child abuse images case
The Guardian: Man jailed until he unlocks encrypted hard drives in child abuse images case by Olivia Solon: Former Philadelphia police officer Francis Rawls, who has been in jail for 17 months, has refused to obey a court order to … Continue reading