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- Reason: Miami Sheriff Hired a Private Law Firm To Pursue—and Profit From—Asset Forfeiture Cases
- D.Conn.: Pole camera on def’s house and curtilage didn’t show inside house, so it’s reasonable
- OH12: Officer’s violation of knock-and-announce statute justifies suppression
- 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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Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
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State courts (and some USDC opinions)
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
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Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
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General (many free):
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F.R.Crim.P. 41
www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
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
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
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
D.S.C.: Tracking cookies cannot be compared to CSLI under Carpenter
Tracking cookies have a commercial purpose, and they cannot remotely be compared to CSLI under Carpenter. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy tracking cookies won’t be used by websites. Motion to dismiss granted. Johnson v. Google, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
EFF: Your Fourth Amendment Rights Should Not be Limited by Terms of Service
EFF: Your Fourth Amendment Rights Should Not be Limited by Terms of Service by Jennifer Lynch: Last week, we filed an amicus brief in U.S. v. Wilson, a federal appellate case, in which we argued that email providers’ terms of … Continue reading
WaPo: DEA’s bulk collection of phone data ‘raised significant legal questions’
WaPo: DEA’s bulk collection of phone data ‘raised significant legal questions’ by Joe Davidson:
NBC: Guests in South Korea motel rooms were filmed, the content streamed, police say
NBC: Guests in South Korea motel rooms were filmed, the content streamed, police say: Four men were arrested for allegedly installing illegal cameras in dozens of motel rooms, then profiting from streaming the feeds to strangers online.
EFF: To Search Through Millions of License Plates, Police Should Get a Warrant
EFF: To Search Through Millions of License Plates, Police Should Get a Warrant by Andrew Crocker:
American Military News: Facial recognition at all top airports by 2021, DHS docs say
American Military News: Facial recognition at all top airports by 2021, DHS docs say by Cheryl Hinnedburg:
Techspot: US Customs to speed up facial recognition adoption at airports despite privacy concerns
Techspot: US Customs to speed up facial recognition adoption at airports despite privacy concerns by David Matthews US Government maintains the technology is critical to national security
Biometric Update: Constitutional rights group recommends laws limiting facial biometrics use by U.S. law enforcement
Biometric Update: Constitutional rights group recommends laws limiting facial biometrics use by U.S. law enforcement by Chris Burt:
Law.com: Public Surveillance and Your Legal Right to Privacy
Law.com: Public Surveillance and Your Legal Right to Privacy by Cliff Rieders: In George Orwell’s “1984,” the citizens could at least see the screen that was watching them. Not so today. Surveillance is often ubiquitous—and because it may encompass public … Continue reading
The Verge: Privacy advocate held at gunpoint after license plate reader mistake, lawsuit alleges
The Verge: Privacy advocate held at gunpoint after license plate reader mistake, lawsuit alleges by Colin Lecher:
WaPo: With fitness trackers in the workplace, bosses can monitor your every step — and possibly more
WaPo: With fitness trackers in the workplace, bosses can monitor your every step — and possibly more by Christopher Rowland:
MeriTalk: A[mazon] W[eb] S[ervice] Offers Support Facial Recognition Legislation
MeriTalk: AWS Offers Support Facial Recognition Legislation:
ECN: Will Big Brother Technology Compromise Privacy?
ECN: Will Big Brother Technology Compromise Privacy? by Ashley Osbun:
TruNews: UK Police Fines Man after He Protested Facial Recognition
TruNews: UK Police Fines Man after He Protested Facial Recognition: If The ‘Predictive Policing’ Technology Makes Its Way To The U.S., There Could Be Some Major Problems.
Digital Trends: As law enforcement gets increasingly high-tech, is privacy being compromised?
Digital Trends: As law enforcement gets increasingly high-tech, is privacy being compromised? by Jules Suzdaltsev:
ABAJ: Lawyer’s suit says FaceTime bug allowed secret recording of deposition, caused emotional trauma
ABAJ: Lawyer’s suit says FaceTime bug allowed secret recording of deposition, caused emotional trauma bY Debra Cassens Weiss:
NYT: iPhone FaceTime Bug That Allows Spying Was Flagged to Apple Over a Week Ago
NYT: iPhone FaceTime Bug That Allows Spying Was Flagged to Apple Over a Week Ago by Nicole Perlroth: SAN FRANCISCO — On Jan. 19, Grant Thompson, a 14-year-old in Arizona, made an unexpected discovery: Using FaceTime, Apple’s video chatting software, … Continue reading
WaPo: There’s hope for federal online privacy legislation
WaPo: There’s hope for federal online privacy legislation (editorial):
WaPo: The Sexts of Jeff Bezos and the Death of Privacy
WaPo: The Sexts of Jeff Bezos and the Death of Privacy by Kara Swisher We can’t look away. But we should.
Slate: Biometrics vs. the Fifth Amendment
Slate: Biometrics vs. the Fifth Amendment by Josephine Wolff: