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- Reason: Homeland Security Is Monitoring Activists Building Anti-Flock Tech
- W.D.Pa.: Def can’t repackage a losing 4A standing claim into a due process claim
- GA: No case says SW required to ask for cell phone password
- VA: Body cam video of valid arrest would not be suppressed
- NM: Trial court’s finding of consent is reversed because the court engaged in its own internet investigation beyond what the parties provided
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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.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
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Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
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"On the Docket"–Medill
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General (many free):
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Westlaw.com $
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
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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: Google refused an order to release huge amounts of data. Will other companies bow under pressure? [Govt seeking tracking information from phone apps]
WaPo: Google refused an order to release huge amounts of data. Will other companies bow under pressure? by Deanna Paul:
CA7: City’s use of “smart meter” is a search, but it is reasonable because it’s not for criminal purposes and law enforcement never knows
The use of a smart meter to collect energy consumption in homes is a search under the Fourth Amendment under Kyllo. It is, however, a reasonable search because it is purely for the use of the power company and city … Continue reading
WaPo: L.A. begins body-scanning metro riders, with a promise of no ‘anatomical detail’
WaPo: L.A. begins body-scanning metro riders, with a promise of no ‘anatomical detail’ by Allyson Chiu:
AP: Google tracks your movements, like it or not
AP: Google tracks your movements, like it or not by Ryan Nakashima: An Associated Press investigation found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you’ve used privacy settings that say they will … Continue reading
The Verge: New facial recognition tool tracks targets across different social networks
The Verge: New facial recognition tool tracks targets across different social networks By Russell Brandom: The open-source program is designed for security researchers.
WaPo Opinion: Facial recognition threatens our fundamental rights
WWaPo Opinion: Facial recognition threatens our fundamental rights by Clare Garvie:
Recode: Your phone is not secretly spying on your conversations. It doesn’t need to.
Recode: Your phone is not secretly spying on your conversations. It doesn’t need to. By Eric Johnson Northeastern University researchers Dave Choffnes and Christo Wilson (mostly) debunk the internet’s favorite conspiracy theory on the latest Too Embarrassed to Ask.
Gizmodo: Microsoft Asks Congress to Regulate Face Recognition
Gizmodo: Microsoft Asks Congress to Regulate Face Recognition by Sidney Fussell:
The Verge: California malls have been feeding license plate data to a national network linked with ICE
The Verge: California malls have been feeding license plate data to a national network linked with ICE by Russell Brandom: A number of California malls appear to be feeding data back to a national license-plate reader network linked to Immigration … Continue reading
NYT: How Smart TVs in Millions of U.S. Homes Track More Than What’s on Tonight
NYT: How Smart TVs in Millions of U.S. Homes Track More Than What’s on Tonight by Sapna Maheshwari:
Gizmodo: These Academics Spent the Last Year Testing Whether Your Phone Is Secretly Listening to You
Gizmodo: These Academics Spent the Last Year Testing Whether Your Phone Is Secretly Listening to You by Kashmir Hill (it’s not but apps tracking what you see and seek may make it seem that way):
The Hill: Lawmakers should accept reality that digital communication can never be ‘too secure’
The Hill: Lawmakers should accept reality that digital communication can never be ‘too secure’ by Chris Howell:
NYT: Newspaper Shooting Shows Widening Use of Facial Recognition by Authorities
NYT: Newspaper Shooting Shows Widening Use of Facial Recognition by Authorities by Cade Metz and Natasha Singer: When the police apprehended a suspect for the shootings at The Capital Gazette’s newsroom in Annapolis, Md., on Thursday, he refused to divulge … Continue reading
D.D.C.: SW for cell phone can also compel use of biometric data to open it
The government may also seek a search warrant for a cell phone that requires use of biometric information to open it, as long as it happens at the time of execution. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in fingerprints … Continue reading
WaPo: Facial recognition technology is finally more accurate in identifying people of color. Could that be used against immigrants?
WaPo: Facial recognition technology is finally more accurate in identifying people of color. Could that be used against immigrants? by Drew Harwell:
NYTimes: Thermostats, Locks and Lights: Digital Tools of Domestic Abuse
NYTimes: Thermostats, Locks and Lights: Digital Tools of Domestic Abuse by Nellie Bowles Internet-connected home devices that are marketed as the newest conveniences are also being used to harass, monitor and control.
WaPo: Editorial: Congress must reckon with the Fourth Amendment and new technology
WaPo: Editorial: Congress must reckon with the Fourth Amendment and new technology A 5-to-4 decision suggests the Supreme Court’s view of “unreasonable searches” is evolving. The House and Senate should clarify the legal standard.
ABAJ: FBI overestimated the number of encrypted phones while arguing for workarounds
ABAJ: FBI overestimated the number of encrypted phones while arguing for workarounds by Jason Tashea:
Wired: Senators Demand Answers from Amazon on Echo’s Snooping Habits
Wired: Senators Demand Answers from Amazon on Echo’s Snooping Habits by Issie Lapowsky: In the letter, Republican senator Jeff Flake and Democratic senator Chris Coons, who serve respectively as chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology … Continue reading