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Recent Posts
- WSJ: ‘We Know You Live Right Here’: No Secrets in America’s New Surveillance Dragnet
- NY Columbia Co.: Alleged excessive nervousness when multiple police cars arrive at a traffic stop doesn’t add to RS
- CA4: Backpack dumped in flight in grandmother’s yard was abandoned
- GA: Virtually all-inclusive list of items to be seized wasn’t overbroad
- CA4: Dist.Ct. erred in applying search incident to arrest to suppress bag when inventory was inevitable
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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
New law review article: Hiding in Plain Sight: A Fourth Amendment Framework for Analyzing Government Surveillance in Public
Rachel Levinson-Waldman, Hiding in Plain Sight: A Fourth Amendment Framework for Analyzing Government Surveillance in Public, 66 Emory L.J. 527 (2017):
WaPo: Facebook says police can’t use its data for ‘surveillance’
WaPo: Facebook says police can’t use its data for ‘surveillance’ by Elizabeth Dwoskin: Facebook is cutting police departments off from a vast trove of data that has been increasingly used to monitor protesters and activists. The move, which the social … Continue reading
Tenth Amendment Center: New Hampshire House Passes Bill Banning Support for Warrantless Federal Spying Programs
Tenth Amendment Center: New Hampshire House Passes Bill Banning Support for Warrantless Federal Spying Programs by Michael Bolden:
OC Weekly: FBI Used Best Buy’s Geek Squad To Increase Secret Public Surveillance
OC Weekly: FBI Used Best Buy’s Geek Squad To Increase Secret Public Surveillance by R. Scott Moxley: Recently unsealed records reveal a much more extensive secret relationship than previously known between the FBI and Best Buy’s Geek Squad, including evidence … Continue reading
NYTimes Opinion: The Truth About the WikiLeaks C.I.A. Cache
NYTimes Opinion: The Truth About the WikiLeaks C.I.A. Cache\ by Zeynep Tufekci: Not all that is made out to be; unfounded assumptions by the press based on hype from Wikileaks.
CNN: Comey: ‘There is no such thing as absolute privacy in America’
CNN: Comey: ‘There is no such thing as absolute privacy in America’ by Mary Kay Mallonee & Eugene Scott: FBI Director James Comey warned Wednesday that Americans should not have expectations of ‘absolute privacy,’ adding that he planned to finish … Continue reading
CNN: Wikileaks claims to reveal how CIA hacks TVs and phones all over the world
CNN: Wikileaks claims to reveal how CIA hacks TVs and phones all over the world by Jose Pagliery: The CIA has become the preeminent hacking operation, sneaking into high-tech phones and televisions to spy on people worldwide, according to an … Continue reading
Ark. Dem.-Gaz.: Amazon will turn over any data recorded in man’s hot-tub death
Ark. Dem.-Gaz.: Amazon will turn over any data recorded in man’s hot-tub death by Tracy Neal: Murder suspect allows access to voice-activated device
Playpen SWs: arstechnica: To keep Tor hack source code secret, DOJ dismisses child porn case
arstechnica: To keep Tor hack source code secret, DOJ dismisses child porn case by Cyrus Farivar DOJ: “Disclosure is not currently an option.”
EFF: An Illinois Court Just Didn’t Get It: We Are Entitled to Expect Privacy In Our Smart Meter Data, Which Reveals What’s Going On Inside Our Homes
EFF: An Illinois Court Just Didn’t Get It: We Are Entitled to Expect Privacy In Our Smart Meter Data, Which Reveals What’s Going On Inside Our Homes by Karen Gullo and Jamie Williams:
Law.com/The Recorder: Fighting Echo Warrant, Amazon Has Scant Law to Draw On
Law.com/The Recorder: Fighting Echo Warrant, Amazon Has Scant Law to Draw On by Ben Hancock: The showdown over access to data recorded by the Amazon ‘smart’ device is pushing the limits of traditional First Amendment and Fourth Amendment principles.
AP (via Ark. Democrat-Gazette): Amazon resists yielding data in slaying inquiry
AP (via Ark. Democrat-Gazette): Amazon resists yielding data in slaying inquiry: Amazon is resisting an effort by Arkansas prosecutors to obtain possible recordings from a slaying suspect’s Amazon Echo device, saying authorities haven’t established that their investigation is more important … Continue reading
The Guardian: German parents told to destroy doll that can spy on children
The Guardian: German parents told to destroy doll that can spy on children by Phillip Oltermann: German watchdog classifies My Friend Cayla doll as ‘illegal espionage apparatus’ and says shops and owners could face fines.
Orin Kerr on Playpen warrants:
DOJ has filed appellate briefs in 3 Playpen warrant cases– CA1, CA8, CA10. Notably, none of the DOJ briefs argue no search occurred. And, Playpen warrants sustained. United States v. Pawlak, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23100 (N.D. Tex. Feb. 17, … Continue reading
Baltimore Sun: Aerial surveillance by Baltimore police has promise, should be studied more, report concludes
Baltimore Sun: Aerial surveillance by Baltimore police has promise, should be studied more, report concludes by Kevin Rector:
WaPo: How to stop data collection on your Vizio (or other smart) television
WaPo: How to stop data collection on your Vizio (or other smart) television by Hayley Tsukayama:
WaPo: These smart TVs were apparently spying on their owners [mere third party data?]
WaPo: These smart TVs were apparently spying on their owners by Hayley Tsukayama. So, if this is third party data, is it subject to mere subpoena and not a search warrant? Feel free to be creeped out. I have a … Continue reading
Tenth Amendment Center: Michigan Ballot Measure Would Help Protect Electronic Data from Warrantless Spying
Tenth Amendment Center: Michigan Ballot Measure Would Help Protect Electronic Data from Warrantless Spying:
The Legal Intelligencer: Will Technology Change the Interpretation of the Fourth Amendment? Part 2
The Legal Intelligencer: Will Technology Change the Interpretation of the Fourth Amendment? Part 2 by Leonard Deutchman:
Center for Democracy and Technology: Alexa, is Law Enforcement Listening?
Center for Democracy and Technology: Alexa, is Law Enforcement Listening? by Joseph Jerome Just days after Christmas, news broke that police in Bentonville, Arkansas, had issued a warrant to Amazon to turn over audio recordings from an Echo as part … Continue reading