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- E.D.Mich.: Second SW for cell phone data retained by govt was valid
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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)
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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: Particularity
D.Minn.: Particularity in social media SWs is still evolving, and reliance on SW here was reasonable
Here, a Facebook warrant that allegedly lacked particularity was still close enough for the good faith exception. The law of particularity in social media warrants is still evolving, and it was reasonable for the officer to rely on the issuing … Continue reading
TN: Merely citing to the particularity requirement not effective appellate argument without context
Defendant’s particularity argument fails for lack of cogent argument: “Defendant’s first question regarding the probable cause requirement has already been answered, and Defendant offers no evidence or argument in support of his apparent challenge to the particularity of the warrant. … Continue reading
DE: “Any and all data” on a cell phone was a general warrant
A cell phone search warrant for any and all data without restriction was not particular and amounted to a general warrant. The use of the product of the search was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Taylor v. State, No. … Continue reading
CA4: Dog sniff before traffic ticket finished was reasonable
Dog sniff occurred here during the initial ordinary incidents of the traffic stop and writing a ticket so it didn’t extend the stop. United States v. Junkins, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 24174 (4th Cir. Aug. 13, 2021). Defendant’s vehicle was … Continue reading
CA8: SW for CP didn’t include “cell phone” in “electronic devices,” but GFE covers it
The search warrant here was for electronic devices that could hold child pornography, and it failed to specifically mention defendant’s cell phone. The good faith exception, however, overcame this omission of particularity. United States v. Pospisil, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Any RS was dispelled before stop
The officer may have had reasonable suspicion as he approached the defendant, but, as he got closer, suspicion was dispelled. No reasonable suspicion for the stop. Motion to suppress granted. United States v. Chavous, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 131326 (E.D. … Continue reading
OH5: Exclusionary rule does not apply in child protection cases
“While this appears to be a case of first impression in Ohio, other states have uniformly held the Fourth Amendment’s exclusionary rule does not apply in child protection cases.” It follows State ex rel. A.R. v. C.R., 1999 UT 43, … Continue reading
CA8: Cell tower warrant to ID robbers was reasonable and with PC
Cell phone tower warrant in an effort to solve multiple robberies by identifying repeated phone use was reasonable when the question is a “substantial basis,” which there was. United States v. James, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 20336 (8th Cir. July … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Geofence warrants have to satisfy the particularity requirement
A geofence warrant has to be narrowly tailored for particularity. Here, the government sought identifying information about what cell phones were in a government building. (The building, crime, and date of the occurrence are not disclosed.) In re Info. That … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Affidavit for SW doesn’t have to provide the particularity, but it can if incorporated
The search warrant here is directed at a place and it’s not required to tie a person to it, unless it aids particularity. The affidavit for the warrant does not need to be particular but the warrant itself does. The … Continue reading
CA6: What is sufficient probable cause for a CSLI or tracking warrant?
What is sufficient probable cause for a CSLI or tracking warrant? “After a lengthy investigation, the federal government uncovered substantial evidence that Dwayne Sheckles was a Louisville distributor for a large drug-trafficking ring. Sheckles pleaded guilty but reserved the right … Continue reading
CA7: State cell phone tracking order issued with PC and was particular
Police got information that cell phone -5822 was used to arrange drug sales. They called the number and set up a few controlled buys. Then they got a state court tracking order for the phone. There is no indication that … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Cell tower dumps to attempt to solve 12 robberies did not require SW
There were 12 robberies and officers got cell tower dumps to attempt to figure out the phone involved. Cell tower dumps did not require a search warrant. United States v. Rhodes, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75184 (N.D. Ga. Apr. 20, … Continue reading
CA9: Inaccuracies in SW’s place to be searched didn’t misdirect officers; QI applies
The inaccuracies in the search warrant the officer sought weren’t enough to misidentify the place to be searched. Therefore, defendants didn’t violate clearly established law. Hill v. County of Benewah, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 10781 (9th Cir. Apr. 15, 2021).* … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Particularity for the property to be searched was shown
Defendant showed standing on the totality to challenge the search of the property where he rented a room. Particularity was shown for the place to be searched. United States v. Dolphay, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66415 (D. Mont. Apr. 6, … Continue reading
OR: SW for evidence of murder on cell phone was general search as to its pictures
The search warrant for defendant’s cell phone permitted officers to search for location information, texts, and calls around the time of the murder. It also permitted a search for evidence of attempted murder. Officers found a picture of a gun … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Business records SW was particular where limited to firearms offense
The business records search here was not overbroad as enabling a search of all records; just for violations of firearms offenses under 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(1). It was particular enough. United States v. Warner, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62302 (D. … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: SW for email on devices as evidence of wire fraud permits seizure and search of the devices
Where the crux of a wire fraud is provable by email, a search warrant for defendant’s electronic devices was reasonable because cell phones and computers would likely have email access on them. That was just common sense, and the affiant … Continue reading