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Recent Posts
- CA8: Admission of anonymous tip that led to stop violated Confrontation Clause
- CO: Anonymous report of student smoking pot in school justified backpack search
- CA6: CI’s lie to get into def’s house to video him making a drug deal with the CI didn’t violate 4A
- TN: Def lived in a van left wide open in a public area, but it didn’t belong to him, so no REP as to interior
- VI: Despite ubiquity of cell phones, nexus has to be shown to alleged crime
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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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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (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: Cell site location information
CA2: More regular home visits of sex offenders to verify information reasonable under “special needs”
Suffolk County contracted with a private non-profit to verify registered sex offenders’ addresses, and that required home visits. Plaintiff sued for violation of the Fourth Amendment. The court holds that their actions were permitted under the “special needs” exception because … Continue reading
Lexology: Carpenter and Everything After: The Supreme Court Nudges the Fourth Amendment into the Information Age
Lexology: Carpenter and Everything After: The Supreme Court Nudges the Fourth Amendment into the Information Age by Christopher Fonzone, Kate Heinzelman, and Michael R. Roberts
MN: CSLI obtained by state statute was valid because of PC showing; it also complied with Carpenter
Defendant’s CSLI was obtained under a state statute that had a probable cause requirement, and the state showed it. There were two statutes involved, and the wrong one was cited, but the state nonetheless met the standards of both. The … Continue reading
MA: Def’s statement was suppressed, and that led to suppression of phone and CSLI for lack of nexus
Defendant’s cell phone search was based on a statement in violation of Miranda, and it must be suppressed. When the affidavit for the search warrant for defendant’s CSLI has the information removed that was the product of that search, there … Continue reading
MT: Overseizure of contents of cell phone didn’t prejudice def where the overseized information was not offered at trial
Defendant argued that the search of his cell phone violated the Fourth Amendment because more was seized than the warrant allowed. Since none of the excess was offered by the state, he wasn’t prejudiced, and the over seizure didn’t void … Continue reading
Bloomberg Law: Location Data Privacy Protection Expanding in Judges’ Hands
Bloomberg Law: Location Data Privacy Protection Expanding in Judges’ Hands by Daniel R. Stoller: Courts have been expanding privacy protections for law enforcement access to real-time cell tower data, a trend attorneys say eventually could include other location-based information. . … Continue reading
CA9: Order suppressing laptop search for lack of PC and delay reversed; not wholely lacking in PC and delay was not unreasonable or culpable
The order suppressing a laptop search is reversed. The computer was seized under a state search warrant but searched under a federal warrant. Even if probable cause was lacking for the issuance of the search warrant, it was close enough … Continue reading
WA: Pre-Carpenter subpoena for CSLI fails with no PC showing
Defendant’s CSLI records were obtained by subpoena without a search warrant pre-Carpenter, and the record was preserved. The Fourth Amendment and the state constitution were violated. The state just can’t use a subpoena for something this intrusive that tracks one’s … Continue reading
OH2: Def’s case was pending when Carpenter decided, so he gets benefit of it, but there was exigency for ping
Defendant was arrested in 2016 for a murder. He raised a CSLI issue, and he was tried after Carpenter was decided. He gets the benefit of Carpenter because his case was still pending when it came down. Nevertheless, there was … Continue reading
NYT: New York City to Consider Banning Sale of Cellphone Location Data
NYT: New York City to Consider Banning Sale of Cellphone Location Data By Jeffery C. Mays: A bill would make it illegal for cellphone companies and mobile apps to share user location information collected in the city without a customer’s … Continue reading
CA4: Def counsel not ineffective for not filing CSLI motion before Carpenter
Defense counsel can’t be ineffective for not anticipating Carpenter by filing a CSLI motion before it was decided. United States v. Jackson, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 21716 (4th Cir. July 22, 2019). Defendant’s motion to prevent a search of his … Continue reading
TN: Carpenter argument defaulted for lack of a good record
A Carpenter CSLI plain error argument isn’t reached because of deficiencies in the record brought up. State v. Avant, 2019 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 415 (July 15, 2019)*:
D.R.I.: CSLI warrant lacked PC and GFE not applied
In what may be a first, the District of Rhode Island suppresses both CSLI and an apartment search warrant for lack of probable cause and then declines to apply the good faith exception. United States v. Ramos, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
CA11: Carpenter not retroactive for a successor habeas
Carpenter not retroactive for a successor habeas. In re Symonette, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 20428 (11th Cir. July 9, 2019):
PA applies Carpenter to 2015 CSLI search because no state case dealt with issue until after; applies to realtime CSLI, too
Defendant filed a motion to suppress CSLI from 2015 before Carpenter was even decided. Because no state case held that CSLI was not a search or the good faith exception applied and there were, in fact, cases holding that CSLI … Continue reading
MA: Actual knowledge def had cell phone on him isn’t required for CSLI warrant
For CSLI, direct evidence that defendant had a cell phone on him is not constitutionally required under Carpenter or any other case. The content of communications aren’t sought – just the fact of where the phone has been. Commonwealth v. … Continue reading
ACLU blog: The Supreme Court’s Most Consequential Ruling for Privacy in the Digital Age, One Year In
ACLU blog: The Supreme Court’s Most Consequential Ruling for Privacy in the Digital Age, One Year In by Nathan Freed Wessler
D.Minn.: A court order doesn’t have to be called a “search warrant” to be one; CSLI order issued with PC
The CSLI order in this case was based on probable cause. It didn’t say “search warrant,” but it doesn’t have to to be one. In any event, the good faith exception was satisfied. United States v. Stachowiak, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading