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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
E.D.Mich.: Border search of computer with special software was reasonable
Defendant arrived at the Detroit airport on a flight from Cancun, and his body language showed he was too nervous. He consented to a search of his camera and computer, and the CBP was looking for child pornography. They called … Continue reading
W.D.Wash.: The govt didn’t violate the 4A by hacking into a child porn server and running it for two weeks, forwarding all user info to another govt computer
The government took over a child pornography website in Washington state and ran it for two weeks via a Title III warrant from a USMJ in the Eastern District of Virginia. They sent all information of visitors to that website … Continue reading
D.Conn.: While def should have presented affidavit of standing, the SW inventory supports his standing
In a corporate office search, defendant should have presented an affidavit to show his standing in the office space. Despite that, however, the government’s search inventory strongly supports his standing because it shows documents taken from what was described as … Continue reading
D.Mass.: SW for computers includes cell phones; also, CDT computer search protocol rejected
A search warrant for computers also permitted seizure and search of smartphones without specifying them because they are computers. Defendants’ argument for the CDT search protocol is rejected as it was by the Ninth Circuit. United States v. Mulcahey, 2015 … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Computer could be seized and searched as a condition of supervised release
Defendant was indicted and convicted in federal court in Georgia, but he was on bond pending appeal in Minnesota. As a condition of his supervised release, his computers were subject to inspection. Based on certain admissions, USPO seized his computer … Continue reading
CO: Collective knowledge doctrine applies to plain view seizure of laptop computer
The fellow officer (collective knowledge) rule applies to plain view seizure of a laptop computer that was seen in plain view that the fellow officer had probable cause to believe contained child pornography. People v. Swietlicki, 2015 CO 67, 2015 … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Seizure of a computer under a warrant authorizes its search, even after the 14 day window
Seizure of a computer under a warrant authorizes its search, even after the 14 day window in the warrant. Phone conversations between defendant and his lawyer over the jail phone system were not subject to attorney-client privilege because there was … Continue reading
WI: Police had independent source of information of CP to search computer seized in connection with wife’s suicide investigation
Defendant’s wife allegedly committed suicide. In the investigation, the police interviewed their daughter and she said that her mother was using her computer just before her death. The computer was seized as a part of the suicide investigation. Later the … Continue reading
Lawfare: Oral Argument Recap: United States v. Ganias
Lawfare: Oral Argument Recap: United States v. Ganias by Michael Knapp The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit sat en banc Wednesday afternoon for the first time in almost two years. The occasion? An otherwise-mundane tax fraud prosecution … Continue reading
Ars Technica: Feds say your hard drives are for the government’s keeping
Ars Technica: Feds say your hard drives are for the government’s keeping by David Kravets: The Justice Department is set to argue Wednesday before a federal appeals court that it may prosecute people for crimes based on evidence obtained from … Continue reading
The Recorder: Defense Lawyers Lose Fight Over Facebook, Instagram Posts
The Recorder: Defense Lawyers Lose Fight Over Facebook, Instagram Posts by Marisa Kendall: In a decision fleshing out the rights of accused criminals in the social media age, a California appeals court ruled Tuesday that Facebook, Twitter and Instagram don’t … Continue reading
SC: Turning computer over to repair tech when it wouldn’t boot was waiver of REP in the data because the hard drive needed repair
Defendant turned her computer over to a repair technician when it wouldn’t boot. He was copying files from the hard drive to backup the data before attempting to fix it, and he saw a questionable image suggesting child exploitation. Coincidentally, … Continue reading
techdirt: DOJ Reasserts Its Right To Engage In Seized Data Fishing Expeditions
techdirt: DOJ Reasserts Its Right To Engage In Seized Data Fishing Expeditions by Tim Cushing: Last June, the Second Circuit appeals court restored a bit of Fourth Amendment protection to computers/devices seized by government investigators. In the case being appealed, … Continue reading
WaPo: Computer searches and the problem of withdrawn consent
WaPo: Computer searches and the problem of withdrawn consent by Orin Kerr: Last week, a district court in Atlanta handed down a fascinating decision on whether agents can search a copy of a seized computer after consent to search the … Continue reading
Open Technology Institute: Unreasonable: the Fourth Amendment and Indefinite Retention of Digital Data
Open Technology Institute: Unreasonable: the Fourth Amendment and Indefinite Retention of Digital Data by Laura Moy & Matt Baker:
Reuters: Civil liberties groups: Freedom at stake in 2nd Circuit seized hard drive case
Reuters: Civil liberties groups: Freedom at stake in 2nd Circuit seized hard drive case by Alison Frankel:
Slate: The Fourth Amendment and Driverless Cars
Slate: The Fourth Amendment and Driverless Cars by John Frank Weaver Should cops need a warrant to access data from your self-driving vehicle? They already need a warrant for black-boxes, GPS devices, cell phones, and computers, so I’d say yes?
NY1: Facebook can’t challenge SWs for customer accounts pre-enforcement
There is no pre-enforcement right to challenge search warrants. There are plenty of post-enforcement proceedings available. In re 381 Search Warrants Directed to Facebook, Inc. v New York County Dist. Attorney’s Off., 2015 NY Slip Op 06201, 2015 N.Y. App. … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: There was PC for a Facebook account SW
There was probable cause for a Facebook account search warrant for defendant’s account, and it was limited in time so it was not overbroad. Also, the good faith exception would apply. United States v. Lowry, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 93257 … Continue reading