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- IN: Overdose call led to EMS telling police what they saw and that led to SW
- NY1: A mental health defense waives REP in the medical records about it
- MA: When a likely Franks violation comes out at trial, def gets to reopen the suppression issue
- RI: Challenge to one sentence of 8-page cell phone records SW fails; totality has to be considered
- WaPo: Subpoena bill would curtail secretive tool used to target government critics
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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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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)
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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: Third Party Doctrine
D.Neb.: Historical CSLI is mere third party information, and no REP in it
“The court notes some of this information has never been protected, and this does not change simply because the phone records arise from use of a cell phone rather than a landline. See Smith, 442 U.S. at 745 (no reasonable … Continue reading
Daily Dot: From insurance to surveillance: Experts debate privacy in the age of Big Data
Daily Dot: From insurance to surveillance: Experts debate privacy in the age of Big Data by Eric Geller: Big Data is scary. That’s the one thing that four people from very different professions agreed on during a panel at a … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: CSLI is third-party information and SW not required, rejecting CA4’s Graham
CSLI information is merely third party information in which there is no reasonable expectation of privacy, and no warrant was required to collect it. If SCOTUS wanted to deal with third party data it could, but it hasn’t. The Fourth … Continue reading
D.Conn.: As much as everybody hates the “third party doctrine,” it’s still good law, and CSLI accessible by subpoena
The government obtained 22 days of defendant’s CSLI information by subpoena and not search warrant, and, as much as the third party doctrine is despised by the commentators, it remains good law today. United States v. Chavez, 2016 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
NY Co.: Overbreadth in email warrant doesn’t require suppression of all emails; third party doctrine should be revamped for the electronic era
The New York eavesdropping statute only applies to communications in transit, not to emails. Despite the overbreadth of the email warrant, the court won’t suppress all the emails. Those that are suppressed have to be returned. The court argues for … Continue reading
FedScoop: Spies’ lawyer: Third party doctrine not an ‘off switch’ for privacy
FedScoop: Spies’ lawyer: Third party doctrine not an ‘off switch’ for privacy by Jeremy Snow: It’s important to distinguish between the different types of disclosure to third parties, said Robert Litt, general counsel for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. … Continue reading
WaPo: Wonkblog: New federal rules will subject truck drivers to more monitoring than ever
WaPo: Wonkblog: New federal rules will subject truck drivers to more monitoring than ever by Lydia DePillis: And they’re not very happy about it. [And under the third-party doctrine, the government can subpoena it all for use in a prosecution.]
OH11: Under a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty Russian website admins will give up U.S. IP addresses
“[¶2] The United States, Australia, and Russia are members of a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty whereby member nations share information about internet traffic on websites including IMGSRC.RU, a Russian file-sharing site known to U.S. Homeland Security as a repository for … Continue reading
LA4: Protective sweep before def arrested in pajamas reentered to get dressed was reasonable
Defendant was arrested in his pajamas, and it was appropriate for the police to conduct a protective sweep for others before he was permitted to get dressed to leave. A shotgun was validly found propped against the wall in the … Continue reading
NYLJ: Court to Review Facebook’s Ability to Fight Warrants
NYLJ: Court to Review Facebook’s Ability to Fight Warrants by Joel Stashenko: The state Court of Appeals said Wednesday it will hear an appeal of a lower court’s ruling that found Facebook lacks standing to challenge search warrants seeking information … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: No REP in CSLI
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his banking records and even in his CSLI. “Finally, Defendant cites persuasive authority holding that there is a reasonable expectation of privacy in CSLI. See D.E. 51 at 29. However, none of … Continue reading
D.Md.: Ptf waived REP in bank records
The Right to Financial Privacy Act was passed in response to Miller, but bank customers can waive privacy in their account records during an investigation, aside from process being applied. Bond v. United States Postal Serv. Fed. Credit Union, 2015 … Continue reading
The Libertarian Republic: Congress Set To Limit Judge-Less Subpoenas At Heart Of Privacy Debate
The Libertarian Republic: Congress Set To Limit Judge-Less Subpoenas At Heart Of Privacy Debate by Mark Tapscott A measure protecting Internet Service Providers against judge-less subpoenas issued by federal bureaucrats has 305 congressional co-sponsors and seems headed toward passage. The … Continue reading
Third party doctrine changes have to come from SCOTUS or Congress
One judge of the D.C. Cir.: NSA’s metadata collection from third parties not unconstitutional under Smith, and third party doctrine changes have to come from SCOTUS or Congress. Klayman v. Obama, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 20216 (D.C.Cir. November 20, 2015) … Continue reading
MO: State investigative subpoena for bank and insurance records didn’t violate Fourth Amendment or statute
Defendant was convicted of murdering her husband. The state collected bank and insurance records by investigative subpoena, and her Fourth Amendment rights were not violated by lack of notice to her, seizure of the records, or failure to have an … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: There is no REP in the information provided by a “smart meter” to the power grid
Plaintiff organization sued the City over its “smart meters” that were installed through a Dept. of Energy grant to modernize the power grid. The meters provide realtime information about power usage in a home. The court denies a Third Amended … Continue reading
NJLJ: Justices to Mull Warrantless Access to Phone Records
NJLJ: Justices to Mull Warrantless Access to Phone Records by Michael Booth: The New Jersey Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments over whether prosecutors should be allowed to obtain criminal suspects’ telephone records without first obtaining a warrant.
National Review: Think Your Cellphone Usage is Private? Think Again
National Review: Think Your Cellphone Usage is Private? Think Again by Naomi R. Alzate & Scott N. Wagner: In a closely-watched case out of Miami [Davis], the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals redefined the zone of privacy for cell phone … Continue reading
MO: State AG civil investigative demands for third party records was valid under ECPA and Fourth Amendment; there is a remedy for overbreadth or burdensomeness
The trial court erred in quashing state AG subpoenas for business records that the businesses sought to protect for customer privacy. The state consumer protection civil investigative demands were valid under ECPA because it permits state subpoena. They were also … Continue reading