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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: Surveillance technology
The Hill: Cities lead crackdown on facial recognition tech
The Hill: Cities lead crackdown on facial recognition tech by Emily Birnbaum:
TechCrunch: Amazon responds to a US senator’s inquiry, confirms Alexa voice records are kept indefinitely
TechCrunch: Amazon responds to a US senator’s inquiry, confirms Alexa voice records are kept indefinitely by Sarah Perez: Amazon has responded to a letter of inquiry it received from U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) that asks the company to detail … Continue reading
The Atlantic: The Strange Politics of Facial Recognition
The Atlantic: The Strange Politics of Facial Recognition by Sidney Fussell: Everyone seems to have found common ground on the emerging technology. That’s exactly what its makers want.
NYTimes: Opinion: A Major Police Body Cam Company Just Banned Facial Recognition
NYTimes: Opinion: A Major Police Body Cam Company Just Banned Facial Recognition: Its ethics board says the technology is not reliable enough to justify using.
WaPo: Data brokers are selling your secrets. Some states are trying to stop them. It isn’t easy.
WaPo: Data brokers are selling your secrets. Some states are trying to stop them. It isn’t easy. By Douglas MacMillan: Vermont’s new data broker registry highlights the difficulties of regulating dozens of secretive firms that buy and sell the personal … Continue reading
WaPo: Goodbye, Chrome: Google’s web browser has become spy software
WaPo: Goodbye, Chrome: Google’s web browser has become spy software by Geoffrey A. Fowler: Our latest privacy experiment found Chrome ushered more than 11,000 tracker cookies into our browser — in a single week. Here’s why Firefox is better.
WaPo: Hacked documents reveal sensitive details of expanding border surveillance
WaPo: Hacked documents reveal sensitive details of expanding border surveillance by Drew Harwell: Far more information was taken in the hack of a Customs and Border Protection contractor than U.S. officials have acknowledged.
Atlantic: Mass Surveillance Is Coming to a City Near You
Atlantic: Mass Surveillance Is Coming to a City Near You by Conor Friedersdorf: A tech entrepreneur wants to track the residents of a high-crime American community.
Law360: Digital Data Privacy One Year After Carpenter
Law360: Digital Data Privacy One Year After Carpenter. (FYI: I don’t subscribe to Law360 so I can’t give more; it costs enough to post all this stuff because I pay for hosting and accept no advertising. I hate advertising.)
NYTimes: Opinion: Facebook Under Oath: You Have No Expectation of Privacy
NYTimes: Opinion: Facebook Under Oath: You Have No Expectation of Privacy by Charlie Warzel: The social media giant thinks privacy is a you problem.
The Intercept: In Court, Facebook Blames Users for Destroying Their Own Right to Privacy
The Intercept: In Court, Facebook Blames Users for Destroying Their Own Right to Privacy by Sam Biddle: But only months after Zuckerberg first outlined his ‘privacy-focused vision for social networking’ in a 3,000-word post on the social network he founded, … Continue reading
USA Today: California could become first to limit facial recognition technology; police aren’t happy
USA Today: California could become first to limit facial recognition technology; police aren’t happy by Marco della Cava: State law enforcement officials here do not now employ the technology to scan those in the line of sight of officers. But … Continue reading
Reason: Can the Fourth Amendment Save Us from the Coming Era of Pervasive Biometric Surveillance?
Reason: Can the Fourth Amendment Save Us from the Coming Era of Pervasive Biometric Surveillance? by Ronald Bailey: New technologies mean new crime solving techniques—and new threats to privacy and liberty.
NYTimes: Opinion: In Stores, Secret Surveillance Tracks Your Every Move
NYTimes: Opinion: In Stores, Secret Surveillance Tracks Your Every Move by Michael Kwet: As you shop, “beacons” are watching you, using hidden technology in your phone.
NYTimes: How Surveillance Cameras Could Be Weaponized With A.I.
NYTimes: How Surveillance Cameras Could Be Weaponized With A.I.bBy Niraj Chokshi: Advances in artificial intelligence could supercharge surveillance cameras, allowing footage to be constantly monitored and instantly analyzed, the A.C.L.U. warned in a new report.
Reason: Can the Fourth Amendment Save Us from the Coming Era of Pervasive Biometric Surveillance?
Reason: Can the Fourth Amendment Save Us from the Coming Era of Pervasive Biometric Surveillance? by Ronald Bailey: New technologies mean new crime solving techniques—and new threats to privacy and liberty.
WaPo: Perspective: Don’t smile for surveillance: Why airport face scans are a privacy trap
WaPo: Perspective: Don’t smile for surveillance: Why airport face scans are a privacy trap by Geoffrey A. Fowler: Facial-recognition technology is un proven and largely unregulated — yet it is already arriving at airports all over the United States. At … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service: California Democrats Push to Ban Facial Recognition Tech
Courthouse News Service: California Democrats Push to Ban Facial Recognition Tech: The dispute intensified Tuesday as California Democrats voted to prohibit the use of facial recognition in body cameras, setting the proposed ban up for a final vote on the … Continue reading
The Recorder: Amazon’s Alexa Devices Violate Children’s Privacy, Class Actions Say
The Recorder: Amazon’s Alexa Devices Violate Children’s Privacy, Class Actions Say by Amanda Bronstad: A pair of class actions seek statutory damages on behalf of children in nine states whose conversations were recorded by an Alexa-enabled device, like Echo and … Continue reading
Reason: The Costs of Monitoring Your Prescriptions
Reason: The Costs of Monitoring Your Prescriptions by Jackob Sullum: State databases that track the medications we take invade our privacy without reducing opioid-related deaths.