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- Reason: Documents Reveal the Postal Service’s Broad Surveillance of Political Activists
- CA4: Not having child in a booster seat justified stop
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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 -
Latest Slip Opinions:
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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
Privacy Foundation
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
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: Surveillance technology
WaPo: If facial recognition is not regulated now, it will never be used responsibly
WaPo: If facial recognition is not regulated now, it will never be used responsibly (“Facial recognition software is full of peril, but it’s also full of potential. with the powerful technology still in its infancy and regulation next to nonexistent, … Continue reading
WaPo: The latest feature on crime app Citizen raises alarms as it accuses the wrong man of arson
WaPo: The latest feature on crime app Citizen raises alarms as it accuses the wrong man of arson by Rachel Lerman & Heather Kelly (“Citizen, a popular app that tracks crimes in cities, offered a $30,000 reward this weekend for … Continue reading
Inside Hook: Amazon’s Ring Is Basically a Giant Civilian Surveillance Network
Inside Hook: Amazon’s Ring Is Basically a Giant Civilian Surveillance Network by Kirk Miller (“After partnering with almost 2,000 police departments, is this home security product a threat to democracy?”)
WaPo: Amazon extends ban on police use of its facial recognition technology indefinitely
WaPo: Amazon extends ban on police use of its facial recognition technology indefinitely by Drew Harwell (“The tech giant said in June its freeze would last a year to ‘give Congress enough time to implement appropriate rules.’ No federal laws … Continue reading
The Intercept: Your Car Is Spying On You, And A CBP Contract Shows The Risks
The Intercept: Your Car Is Spying On You, And A CBP Contract Shows The Risks by Sam Biddle (“A ‘vehicle forensics kit’ can reveal where you’ve driven, what doors you opened, and who your friends are.”)
EFF: Your Service Provider’s Terms of Service Shouldn’t Overrule Your 4A Rights
EFF: Your Service Provider’s Terms of Service Shouldn’t Overrule Your Fourth Amendment Rights by Jennifer Lynch:
Reason: Lawmakers Look To Stop the Feds From Secretly Buying Your Private Data
Reason: Lawmakers Look To Stop the Feds From Secretly Buying Your Private Data by Scott Shackford (“A 2018 Supreme Court decision was supposed to protect your location data from federal snooping. That’s not what happened.”)
The Detroit News: Lawsuit: Man suffered ‘great harm’ after wrongful arrest based on Detroit’s facial recognition technology
The Detroit News: Lawsuit: Man suffered ‘great harm’ after wrongful arrest based on Detroit’s facial recognition technology by George Hunter (“Attorneys representing a Farmington Hills man filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday seeking undisclosed damages from the city, its police chief … Continue reading
Reason: Cops Are Using Facial Recognition Technology More Than Previously Revealed
Reason: Cops Are Using Facial Recognition Technology More Than Previously Revealed by J.D. Tuccille (“The surveillance state is available as a plug-and-play solution for any cop interested in a free trial period.”)
Virginian Pilot: Virginia State Police admit — after repeated denials — that they used controversial facial recognition app
Virginian Pilot: Virginia State Police admit — after repeated denials — that they used controversial facial recognition app by Jonathan Edwards (“After repeated denials, the Virginia State Police last week admitted that some of their detectives used a controversial facial … Continue reading
WaPo: How America’s surveillance networks helped the FBI catch the Capitol mob
WaPo: How America’s surveillance networks helped the FBI catch the Capitol mob by Drew Harwell and Craig Timberg (“Federal documents detailing the attacks at the U.S. Capitol show a mix of FBI techniques, from license plate readers to facial recognition, … Continue reading
NYT: If You Care About Privacy, It’s Time to Try a New Web Browser
NYT: If You Care About Privacy, It’s Time to Try a New Web Browser by Brian X. Chen (“A new crop of internet browsers from Brave, DuckDuckGo and others offer stronger privacy protections than what you might be used to.”) … Continue reading
VICE: How Musicians and Sex Workers Beat Facial Recognition in New Orleans
VICE: How Musicians and Sex Workers Beat Facial Recognition in New Orleans by Carolina Sinders (“A grassroots coalition of Black youth, sex workers, and community advocates stood against the surveillance state—and won.”)
WaPo: Thanks to covid-19, the age of biometric surveillance is here
WaPo: Thanks to covid-19, the age of biometric surveillance is here by Michele L. Norris:
MI: City’s use of drone photos in zoning dispute violated homeowner’s REP
The township’s use of a drone to fly over defendant’s property to take pictures for a zoning dispute violated their reasonable expectation of privacy. The state legislature said that they have one from drone usage. Long Lake Twp. v. Maxon, … Continue reading
VICE: Cars Have Your Location. This Spy Firm Wants to Sell It to the U.S. Military
VICE: Cars Have Your Location. This Spy Firm Wants to Sell It to the U.S. Military by Joseph Cox (“15 billion car locations. Nearly any country on Earth. ‘The Ulysses Group’ is pitching a powerful surveillance technology to the U.S. … Continue reading
Forbes: Drones With ‘Most Advanced AI Ever’ Coming Soon To Your Local Police Department
Forbes: Drones With ‘Most Advanced AI Ever’ Coming Soon To Your Local Police Department by Thomas Brewster (“Founded by Google veterans and backed by $340 million from major VCs, Skydio is creating drones that seem straight out of science fiction—and … Continue reading
WaPo: Massive camera hack exposes the growing reach and intimacy of American surveillance
WaPo: Massive camera hack exposes the growing reach and intimacy of American surveillance by Drew Harwell (“A breach of the camera start-up Verkada ‘should be a wake-up call to the dangers of self-surveillance,’ one expert said: ‘Our desire for some … Continue reading
EFF: App Stores Have Kicked Out Some Location Data Brokers. Good, Now Kick Them All Out.
EFF: App Stores Have Kicked Out Some Location Data Brokers. Good, Now Kick Them All Out. by Bennett Cyphers:
M.D.Fla.: Police dog attack on wrong person not promptly called off was excessive
The officer had reasonable suspicion to frisk three men before they fled him. Releasing a police dog was not unreasonable. The dog’s attack of a 40ish woman, however, was not seen to be reasonable, and the dog was not promptly … Continue reading