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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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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)
ACLU on privacy
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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: Computer and cloud searches
M.D.Fla.: A CP SW for “‘computers’ and related material” includes a cell phone and SD card
A search warrant for child pornography for “‘computers’ and related material” permitted a search of a cell phone and an SD card found during the search. At the minimum, their search was in objective good faith. United States v. Tatro, … Continue reading
CA2: Retention of mirror image of hard drives for 3 yrs before searching them under SW was at least good faith
The government copied defendant’s hard drives in 2003 but didn’t get around to searching them until 2006. After discussing the privacy interests in data and the wealth of information that could be held on a computer, the court said: “Having … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: SW particularity shown in attachments; lack of a computer search protocol not a violation of Fourth Amendment
The attachments to the application and search warrant, reasonably read, limited the search and provided necessary particularity. [Comprehensive discussion of principles of interpretation of documents.] The lack of a computer search protocol didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. United States v. … Continue reading
The Hill: Search warrant change sparks backlash
The Hill: Search warrant change sparks backlash by Katie Bo Williams: A battle is brewing on Capitol Hill over a seemingly small change to federal hacking powers that critics say will authorize sweeping government surveillance. Unless Congress moves by December … Continue reading
NY3: Cell phones may be seized and searched under SW for computers, processors, and drives
A search warrant for computers, processing units, and drives didn’t say “cell phone,” but cell phones may be seize under that description. People v. Victor, 2016 NY Slip Op 03551, 2016 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3425 (3d Dept. May 5, … Continue reading
NYTimes: Former Officer Is Jailed Months Without Charges, Over Encrypted Drives
NYTimes: Former Officer Is Jailed Months Without Charges, Over Encrypted Drives by Christine Hauser: A former police sergeant has been held without charges in a federal detention cell in Philadelphia, part of an effort by the authorities to pressure him … Continue reading
N.D.Fla.: FBI had PC there was CP on electronic storage media hidden in plastic bags in a woodpile
“[A]pplying the totality of the circumstances test the Court has little difficulty concluding there was sufficient probable cause to search the electronic storage media provided to the F.B.I. For starters, a simple examination of the items to be searched evidences … Continue reading
VT: Broad computer monitoring condition of a sex offender on probation had to be narrowed
A computer monitoring and internet bar probation condition of a convicted sex offender was modified to better match his circumstances. He can have access to the internet, and, on reasonable suspicion, the PO can search his computer. State v. Cornell, … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Computer searches should occur away from the home of the target
Computer searches should occur away from the target’s premises. Sometimes they take a long time, and it is infeasible to do them at the scene of the search when it can take days. The comment to the Rule supports this. … Continue reading
D.Mass.: NIT warrant in CP investigation that transmitted information to user’s computers violated USMJ statute and Rule 41 and no GFE
In a child porn investigation, the government took over a server with child porn known as “Website A.” “The government used a “Network Investigative Technique (“NIT”) [warrant] that would allow the government covertly to transmit computer code to Website A … Continue reading
PA: Trial court abused discretion in reopening twice reversed suppression order for third hearing; no change in law
“Therefore, because the Jones decision did not present an intervening change in the law, we conclude the trial court abused its discretion in re-opening Sodomsky’s suppression hearing for the second time after its two prior suppression orders were reversed by … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Treaty request for financial information from Cayman Islands was not based on materially false information; based on employee search of computer
This case involves a Motion to Suppress Evidence Obtained Pursuant to the Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) between the U.S. and the Cayman Islands. The U.S. has to make an application to the Cayman Islands for information, including the justification, … Continue reading
CA1: Merely being primary user of computer doesn’t mean wife didn’t have apparent authority to consent; no separate password
Defendant’s wife saw child pornography on his computer and told the police. She consented to a search of the computer. Even though he was the primary user of the computer, he did not leave the computer password protected from her … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Def had a reasonable expectation of privacy in iPad even though family and housekeeper had password
Defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his iPad that was in his house despite the fact that others in the home, including the housekeeper, had the password. The housekeeper saw likely child pornography and told the police, and … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Seizing flash drives outside of the warrant requires suppression
Seizing flash drives which were outside of the warrant requires their suppression. Failure to include the attachment in a warrant left on the premises is only a rule violation, not a constitutional one. United States v. Rojas-Camilo, 2016 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
Cal.6th: Probation computer search condition was overbroad and unreasonable
A probation condition allowing computer searches for material prohibited by law was overbroad under the Fourth Amendment because the condition allowed for searches of vast amounts of personal information unrelated to defendant’s criminal conduct or potential for future criminality. Narrower … Continue reading
D.Minn.: PC shown to get def’s Facebook account for evidence of soliciting sex acts with minors
Probable cause was shown for defendant’s Facebook account: “The Court finds here that Agent Jones’s affidavit established probable cause to believe that evidence of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places, or contraband or fruits of such conduct, would … Continue reading