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- NM: Trial court’s finding of consent is reversed because the court engaged in its own internet investigation beyond what the parties provided
- Reason: No Warrant, No Suspicion, No Problem: Flock and Border Cellphone Searches Excluded From 4th Amendment Rules
- Reason: Flock’s Gunfire Alerts Raise a New Fourth Amendment Question
- N.D.Ohio: Car in driveway was on curtilage and plain view prohibited
- PA: 18 U.S.C. § 2558A doesn’t mandate social media searches, only reporting what they discover; still a private search
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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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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)
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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: GPS / Tracking Data
CNET: Geofence warrants: How police get data from all devices in targeted areas
CNET: Geofence warrants: How police get data from all devices in targeted areas by Alfred Ng (“The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is also challenging the constitutionality of geofence warrants in a Virginia case. The organization argues that geofence … Continue reading
NC: State fails to show need for satellite based monitoring of sex offender who won’t be released from prison until 2032
The state fails to show the need for constant satellite based monitoring for defendant convicted sex offender who won’t even be released from prison until 2032. State v. Gordon, 2020 N.C. App. LEXIS 205 (Mar. 17, 2020):
Protocol: Through apps, not warrants, ‘Locate X’ allows federal law enforcement to track phones
Protocol: Through apps, not warrants, ‘Locate X’ allows federal law enforcement to track phones by Charles Levinson (“Federal agencies have big contracts with Virginia-based Babel Street. Depending on where you’ve traveled, your movements may be in the company’s data.”)
IN: Warrant-placed GPS unit’s failure is not PC to believe defendant stole it
Just because a GPS device lawfully planted on a car stops working is not probable cause to believe the defendant stole it. The search warrant for his house and barn to recover it lacked all probable cause and any basis … Continue reading
OR: Car owner had no REP from GPS installed by his company before he got the car from them
Plaintiff worked for Toyota Motor Credit and Toyota Financial Services. When he severed his employment with them, he was allowed to keep the vehicle he used for them. Unbeknownst to him, Toyota Financial Services had a GPS device on the … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Venue for a motion for return of seized property is where the property was seized
Venue for a motion for return of seized property is where the property was seized, here the E.D. N.Y. United States v. Collado, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7873 (S.D. N.Y. Jan. 16, 2020). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not challenging … Continue reading
CA11: Border search of disabled vessel towed to port obviated need to decide warrantless planting of GPS on it
Defendant’s vessel broke down off West Palm Beach, and CBP boarded it when it was towed in for a border search. Nothing was found, but various things about the boat, like it’s prior owner was a drug trafficker and defendant’s … Continue reading
NYTimes: The F.A.A. Wants to Start Tracking Drones’ Locations
NYTimes: The F.A.A. Wants to Start Tracking Drones’ Locations by Heather Murphy (“A proposal would require most drones flying in American airspace to include technology that would allow the government to keep tabs on them.”)
WaPo: Police hid a tracking device on a suspect’s car — then charged him with theft for removing it
WaPo: Police hid a tracking device on a suspect’s car — then charged him with theft for removing it by Brittany Shammas (“For about a week in summer 2018, Indiana authorities monitored a suspected drug dealer’s movements using a GPS … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: One day’s GPS monitoring reasonable under Knotts, all things considered
A valuable opinion from the Middle District of Alabama on privacy v. property, mosaic theory or not, reasonable expectations of privacy on the open road. The court is constrained to find one day’s GPS tracking was reasonable under Knotts. United … Continue reading
FL5: CI rented car for def to commit a robbery; told police and they put GPS on car; stop was with PC
The CI had knowledge defendant was going to commit a robbery and was enlisted to rent a car for it. The CI told the police, and they planted a GPS on the car with the CI’s permission. After the robbery, … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Def was a parole absconder with a cell phone; PC existed for a warrant for a ping of the cell phone to find him
Defendant was a state parole absconder, and the officers got a warrant for a tracking order on the phone to find him, and it was issued with probable cause he’d be found with his phone. In any event, the good … Continue reading
Forbes: Do Food Trucks Have Fourth Amendment Rights? Supreme Court Could Decide In Chicago GPS Tracker Case
Forbes: Do Food Trucks Have Fourth Amendment Rights? Supreme Court Could Decide In Chicago GPS Tracker Case by Nick Sibilla:
Motherboard: The Private Surveillance System That Tracks Cars Nationwide
Motherboard: The Private Surveillance System That Tracks Cars Nationwide (“It’s not just the NSA with all of the surveillance power in America, there’s a booming corporate-owned surveillance industry used by private investigators.”).
TX3: State failed to show exigency for dispensing with BAC SW
The trial court did not err by granting defendant’s motion to suppress blood evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The State failed to prove that the warrantless blood draw was justified by exigent circumstances: the collision did not … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Retaining new counsel and attempting to reopen suppression hearing under guise of IAC claim rejected
Defendant retained new counsel and moved to reopen his suppression hearing alleging former counsel was ineffective for not raising a better argument. The motion is denied because this claim doesn’t satisfy the standard for reopening. The issue was available and … Continue reading
CA9: Even if state tracking warrant was limited to state, GFE applies
Assuming without deciding that a state tracking warrant couldn’t be tracked outside the state, the exclusionary rule would not be applied because the officers were all clearly operating in good faith. Moreover, defendant’s committing yet another bank robbery while he … Continue reading
CNS: Nonprofit Sues for Info on Warrantless GPS Tracking of Vehicles
Courthouse News Service: Nonprofit Sues for Info on Warrantless GPS Tracking of Vehicles by Jack Rodgers:
NC: On remand from Grady, lifetime monitoring of sex offense “recidivists” off parole or any community control violates 4A
On remand from Grady v. North Carolina, 135 S. Ct. 1368 (2015), North Carolina’s lifetime satellite based monitoring system is unconstitutional as applied to those “recidivists” who have completed parole and all post-release supervision. The court does not go into … Continue reading
FL4: Mistakenly placed GPS on probationer isn’t suppressed under Heien and Herring
When defendant started probation, a GPS monitor was placed on him without court order by a probation employee that just assumed it was required. It wasn’t. It was an apparent violation of the Fourth Amendment, but it’s within the Heien … Continue reading