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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 -
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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
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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
WaPo: Police are using software to predict crime. Is it a ‘holy grail’ or biased against minorities?
WaPo: Police are using software to predict crime. Is it a ‘holy grail’ or biased against minorities? by Justin Jouvenal:
NPR: It Ain’t Me, Babe: Researchers Find Flaws In Police Facial Recognition
NPR: It Ain’t Me, Babe: Researchers Find Flaws In Police Facial Recognition by Laura Sydell: Nearly half of all American adults have been entered into law enforcement facial recognition databases, according to a recent report from Georgetown University’s law school. … Continue reading
NPR: Police Facial Recognition Databases Log About Half Of Americans
NPR: Police Facial Recognition Databases Log About Half Of Americans: A new report from Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology says all it takes is a driver’s license to be included in the searchable databases. Rachel Martin talks to … Continue reading
WaPo: Volokh Conspiracy: The Fifth Amendment and Touch ID
WaPo: Volokh Conspiracy: The Fifth Amendment and Touch ID by Orin Kerr: My recent post on the legality of warrants that permit phone unlocking prompted some reader comments on how the Fifth Amendment might apply to using fingerprint readers such … Continue reading
WaPo: Volokh Conspiracy: Can warrants for digital evidence also require fingerprints to unlock phones?
WaPo: Volokh Conspiracy: Can warrants for digital evidence also require fingerprints to unlock phones? by Orin Kerr: There has been a lot of press coverage recently about a search warrant obtained in Los Angeles allowing the government to force people … Continue reading
NPR: Why What Facebook Knows About You Could Matter Offline
NPR: Why What Facebook Knows About You Could Matter Offline The investigative team at ProPublica wants you to know what Facebook knows about you. It’s more than you can imagine.
Techdirt: Granted Warrant Allowed Feds To Force Everyone At Searched Residence To Unlock Devices With Their Fingerprints
Techdirt: Granted Warrant Allowed Feds To Force Everyone At Searched Residence To Unlock Devices With Their Fingerprints by Tim Cushing: This is the reality of what the government is seeking: law enforcement officers detaining suspects and non-suspects alike and forcing … Continue reading
The Atlantic: Hackers Can Listen In on Your Skype Calls
The Atlantic: Hackers Can Listen In on Your Skype Calls by Kaveh Waddell: A security researcher found a way to ‘piggyback’ on video chats, and it’s very hard to detect.
WaPo: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram sent feeds that helped police track minorities in Ferguson and Baltimore, report says
WaPo: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram sent feeds that helped police track minorities in Ferguson and Baltimore, report says by Craig Timberg and Elizabeth Dwoskin: A powerful surveillance program that police used for tracking racially charged protests in Baltimore and Ferguson, … Continue reading
WaPo: Meet the judge who just released 200 secret government surveillance requests
WaPo: Meet the judge who just released 200 secret government surveillance requests by Spencer Hsu: In ordering the first-ever release by a full federal district court of a year’s worth of secret government surveillance requests, U.S. District Chief Judge Beryl … Continue reading
EFF: The Playpen Story: Some Fourth Amendment Basics and Law Enforcement Hacking
EFF: The Playpen Story: Some Fourth Amendment Basics and Law Enforcement Hacking by Mark Rumold: (This is part of a series of blog posts about the Playpen cases. For more background, see our earlier blog post and our FAQ.)
WaPo: The Watch: Lunch links: Police agencies across America are assembling massive databases about you
WaPo: The Watch: Lunch links: Police agencies across America are assembling massive databases about you by Radley Balko.
the intercept: Leaked Catalogue Reveals a Vast Array of Military Spy Gear Offered to U.S. Police
the intercept: Leaked Catalogue Reveals a Vast Array of Military Spy Gear Offered to U.S. Police by Sam Biddle: A confidential, 120-page catalogue of spy equipment, originating from British defense firm Cobham and circulated to U.S. law enforcement, touts gear … Continue reading
Wired: How Baltimore Became America’s Laboratory for Spy Tech
Wired: How Baltimore Became America’s Laboratory for Spy Tech by Lily Hay Newman: If you live in Baltimore, you may have the feeling that you’re being watched. You are. Baltimore Police track your cellphone use without a warrant. They secretly … Continue reading
fivethirtyeight.com: Internet Tracking Has Moved Beyond Cookies
fivethirtyeight.com: Internet Tracking Has Moved Beyond Cookies by Jody Avirgan:
CIO Dive: What happens when tech innovation moves faster than Congress?
CIO Dive: What happens when tech innovation moves faster than Congress? by Justine Brown: The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) has a provision that requires electronic communications more than 180 days old be treated as abandoned and thus obtainable with … Continue reading
New American: New Illinois Law Nullifies Expansion of Surveillance State
New American: New Illinois Law Nullifies Expansion of Surveillance State by Joe Wolverton, II: A new law in Illinois works to protect citizens of that state from being subjected to electronic surveillance that violates their right to be free from … Continue reading
New Law Review Article: Protecting the Fourth Amendment in the Information Age: A Response to Robert Litt
New Law Review Article: Protecting the Fourth Amendment in the Information Age: A Response to Robert Litt by Cindy Cohn (short form here without footnotes)
Fusion: Police asked this 3D printing lab to recreate a dead man’s fingers to unlock his phone
Fusion: Police asked this 3D printing lab to recreate a dead man’s fingers to unlock his phone by Rose Eveleth: So instead of asking the company that made the phone to grant them access, they’re going another route: having the … Continue reading
WaPo: Communications network providers opposed government surveillance — in 1928
WaPo: Volokh Conspiracy: Communications network providers opposed government surveillance — in 1928 by Orin Kerr: A lot of readers are familiar with Olmstead v. United States, the 1928 Supreme Court case ruling that wiretapping a telephone line is not a … Continue reading