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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16) (discontinued 2018)
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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-24,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 425,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 45,000 posts since 2003 (26,730+ on WordPress as of 12/31/23) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
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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) -
“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 -
"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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew "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)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Category Archives: Surveillance technology
Fox News: SEC hit with new lawsuit alleging ‘mass surveillance’ of Americans through stock market data
Fox News: SEC hit with new lawsuit alleging ‘mass surveillance’ of Americans through stock market data by Brianna Herlihy (“A new lawsuit calls the SEC’s data collection ‘completely unlawful,’ putting Americans’ financial data at ‘grave risk’”)
CNS: Google to pay $62 million for tracking users without consent
Courthouse News Service: Google to pay $62 million for tracking users without consent by Natalie Hanson (“Google will pay $62 million to numerous nonprofits on behalf of people who say the company violated their constitutional and common law privacy rights … Continue reading
Lawfare: How Google’s Location History Program Could Upend Digital Surveillance Law
Lawfare: How Google’s Location History Program Could Upend Digital Surveillance Law (“Federal courts may eliminate Fourth Amendment protections for cell phone data based on dubious claims about Google’s Location History.”)
Newsday: Planned New York City subway body scans for weapons draw constitutional concerns
Newsday: Planned New York City subway body scans for weapons draw constitutional concerns (paywall)
Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) litigation
From today’s webinar by NACDL’s Fourth Amendment Center. Summary of materials here. The video will be posted on nacdl.org later.
Lawfare: What Does the Public Think About Government Use of Facial Recognition?
Lawfare: What Does the Public Think About Government Use of Facial Recognition? by Matthew Kugler (“New data suggests that the public is broadly accepting of targeted facial recognition use even as it is concerned about casual facial surveillance becoming an … Continue reading
TechCrunch: ‘Reverse’ searches: The sneaky ways that police tap tech companies for your private data
TechCrunch: ‘Reverse’ searches: The sneaky ways that police tap tech companies for your private data by Zack Whittaker (“U.S. police departments are increasingly relying on a controversial surveillance practice to demand large amounts of users’ data from tech companies, with … Continue reading
thedrive.com: Police Are Tagging Fleeing Cars With GPS Darts to Avoid Dangerous Pursuits
thedrive.com: Police Are Tagging Fleeing Cars With GPS Darts to Avoid Dangerous Pursuits by Nico DeMattia (“The launchers are typically mounted to the front of cop cars and can fire darts at up to 30 mph.”). [Exigency, like an emergency … Continue reading
NYU L. Rev.: If Wheels Could Talk: Fourth Amendment Protections Against Police Access to Automobile Data
Nicole Mo, If Wheels Could Talk: Fourth Amendment Protections Against Police Access to Automobile Data, 98 NYU L. Rev. 2232 (Dec. 2023):
Reason: Stop Your Car From Spying on You
Reason: Stop Your Car From Spying on You by J.D. Tuccille (“Modern cars are smartphones on wheels, but with less protection for your data.”):
NACDL webinar: ALPR and the 4A, April 11
April 11th, register here, but only for NACDL members:
CA11: Even if Carpenter applied to license plate readers, it happened before Carpenter was decided so good faith applies
Even if Carpenter applied to automated license plate readers, it was decided the day after this happened, so the good faith exception would apply in any event. In addition, the officer’s testimony about it was lay testimony under F.R.E. 702. … Continue reading
Lawfare: Data Broker Sales and the Fourth Amendment
Lawfare: Data Broker Sales and the Fourth Amendment by Aaron X. Sobel (“Why the Fourth Amendment doesn’t actually prevent the government from purchasing personal data from data brokers.”)
W.D.N.C.: Def agreed to electronic monitoring as a condition of release
Defendant agreed to electronic monitoring as a condition of release, so it was admissible in evidence. United States v. Anthony, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40422 (W.D.N.C. Mar. 6, 2024). Defendant’s improper lane change was seen in the rearview mirror, so … Continue reading
AK: Police aerial flyover with telephoto lens of rural property violates state right of privacy
Under the Alaska Constitution, an aerial flyover with a telephoto lens of rural property in a “sparsely populated area” in the woods north of Fairbanks produced evidence of a grow operation. In a long (and sensitive opinion), the Alaska Supreme … Continue reading
WSJ: U.S. Spy Agencies Know Our Secrets. They Bought Them.
Wall Street Journal: U.S. Spy Agencies Know Our Secrets. They Bought Them. by Byron Tau (“Whatever the U.S. can do with commercial data, foreign governments can do too. Last week, President Biden signed an executive order to prevent certain adversary … Continue reading
AP: A woman wins $3.8 million verdict after SWAT team searches wrong home based on Find My iPhone app
AP: A woman wins $3.8 million verdict after SWAT team searches wrong home based on Find My iPhone app by Colleen Slevin:
E.D.Wis.: Ptfs state claim that City of Green Bay’s installation of listening devices in public hallways likely violates the 4A
The City of Green Bay installed listening devices in public hallways of City Hall to monitor all conversations there for security purposes. When they found out, plaintiffs sued claiming a reasonable expectation of privacy in conversations conducted in such a … Continue reading
NY Times: When Eyes in the Sky Start Looking Right at You
NY Times: When Eyes in the Sky Start Looking Right at You by William J. Broad (“New satellites that orbit the Earth at very low altitudes may result in a world where nothing is really off limits.”). Where does the … Continue reading
Fast Company: Schools are using surveillance tech to catch students vaping—and doling out harsh punishments
Fast Company: Schools are using surveillance tech to catch students vaping—and doling out harsh punishments (“Sensors marketed as fighting COVID-19 are actually being used to monitor students and then threaten them with suspension—or even criminal charges.”). Is there a reasonable … Continue reading