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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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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
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) -
“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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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, Little Rock 
Category Archives: Cell site location information
TX7: Carpenter applied retroactively where def preserved issue
Defendant raised a Carpenter CSLI issue pretrial, and he prevails. Carpenter held retroactive (despite citing Davis). Dixon v. State, 2018 Tex. App. LEXIS 10340 (Tex. App. – Amarillo Dec. 13, 2018):
S.D.N.Y.: Failure to challenge CSLI before Carpenter wasn’t IAC
Defendant’s verdict was the day Carpenter was decided, and his defense lawyer hadn’t challenged the CSLI before that. Defense lawyers don’t have to forecast changes in the law. “ Even following Carpenter, the Second Circuit has declined to suppress cell … Continue reading
D.Md.: Obtaining defendant’s CSLI six years before Carpenter was lawful; no 2255 relief
Obtaining defendant’s CSLI six years before Carpenter was lawful, and it doesn’t form a basis for relief now. Osiomwan v. United States, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 200033 (D. Md. Nov. 27, 2018).* Defendant’s statements to the police were voluntary despite … Continue reading
FL4: Violating statute obtaining CSLI in 2001 suppressed, and no GFE
Police obtained defendant’s CSLI in 2001 by subpoena and without a court order contrary to statute. Defendant argued a search warrant was required. Then Carpenter was decided in 2018 requiring a warrant. The state violated the statute requiring a court … Continue reading
ID: Affidavit for SW doesn’t have to be signed in judge’s presence
The search warrant was properly issued on affidavit. It didn’t have to be signed in the presence of the judge. An oral affidavit has to be, but this isn’t. State v. Hensley, 2018 Ida. App. LEXIS 49 (Nov. 16, 2018). … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Carpenter applies to a 2015 CSLI application because the case is still pending
Carpenter applies to defendant’s CSLI because his case is still pending despite the fact the CSLI was obtained in 2015. Suppressed. United States v. Beverly, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183539 (S.D. Tex. Oct. 26, 2018). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Govt showed emergency to locate serial robber by CSLI ping
Defendant is indicted for Hobbs Act robbery, and detectives believed he was in a string of robberies. They obtained ping information on the phone in an attempt to locate him before he committed another robbery. Exigency is shown by the … Continue reading
CA10: In a Carpenter remand, court remands to Dist.Ct. instead of applying GFE
This case was GVR’d after Carpenter, and the court remands to the district court to make further findings. United States v. Thompson, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 29949 (10th Cir. Oct. 24, 2018). Defense counsel can’t be ineffective for not filing … Continue reading
CA6: Seizure of cell phone under SW had to be within time prescribed but the actual off-site search can be later
The seizure of the cell phone was within the time prescribed in the search warrant, but the actual search of the phone didn’t occur until after the time prescribed. This did not violate the Fourth Amendment. Off-site analysis was expected … Continue reading
CO: Once a dog alerts on a car, there is PC, and putting dog in car wasn’t unreasonable
Once a dog alerted on a car during a stop that was valid up to that time, putting the dog inside the car wasn’t unreasonable. The officers had probable cause at that point. People v. Bailey, 2018 CO 84 (Oct. … Continue reading
VA: CSLI obtained before Carpenter was valid
CSLI obtained in 2012 and 2015 was lawful at the time before Carpenter, so the good faith exception applies. (The case was GVR’d because of Carpenter.) “We adopt the analytical framework set forth in Chavez. Appellant’s CSLI was acquired in … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: No standing in a shipped package found in another’s car where def’s name not on box as sender or recipient
Defendant had no standing to challenge the search of a previously shipped package located in another person’s vehicle that had his name nowhere on it as recipient or sender. Also, the search of the package was valid by consent and … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Govt planting video camera in neighbor’s house aiming at def’s backyard didn’t violate 4A
Officers put a video camera in defendant’s back neighbor’s house to look at defendant’s back yard over the long term. This was similar to a pole camera, except that its view was the same as the back neighbor’s, and it … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: No IAC for not challenging CSLI without warrant before Carpenter
Defendant didn’t get ineffective assistance of counsel from defense counsel not challenging warrantless CSLI production without a warrant before Carpenter. United States v. Lewisbey, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 165566 (N.D. Ill. Sep. 27, 2018). Defendant claimed for the first time … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Pre-Carpenter CSLI survives with GFE; Riley didn’t foretell Carpenter
Defendant was a suspect in a series of bank robberies, and a court order was obtained for his CSLI in 2016. Defendant’s argument that Riley foretold Carpenter is rejected. It wasn’t enough to forecast a clear outcome. The good faith … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Exclusionary rule doesn’t apply to federal supervised release hearings
The exclusionary rule is not applicable to federal supervised release revocation hearings. United States v. Jones, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 162830 (S.D. N.Y. Sep. 24, 2018). The government did, in fact, have a search warrant for defendant’s CSLI, so his … Continue reading
CA2: On GVR after Carpenter, Second Circuit also holds GFE applies to 2011 SCA order
Defendant’s CSLI case was GVR’d by SCOTUS after Carpenter. His SCA order was issued in 2011. “Prior to Carpenter, all six courts of appeal to have considered the question had held that the government acquisition of electronic data from third … Continue reading
DE applies Carpenter to January CSLI search; no action yet on state’s effort to get it again after motion to suppress
Defendant was the subject of a CSLI warrant in January 2018. After he filed a motion to suppress under Carpenter decided in June, the state sought the same information by a search warrant in August 2018. Carpenter applies here. The … Continue reading
FL: Use of Stringray to find def to arrest him was valid or valid under GFE
The use of a Stingray cell site simulator to find defendant to find him to arrest him didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. Even if it did, the good faith exception makes it valid here. Andres v. State, 2018 Fla. LEXIS … Continue reading
N.D.W.Va.: Victim of assault with firearm provided PC for SW for gun
Defendant’s girlfriend reported to police that he had a firearm and used it to break a window in her car and strike her when she was trying to leave. There was probable cause for the warrant for the firearm, and … Continue reading