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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 $ -
Research Links:
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General (many free):
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www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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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: Reasonable suspicion
CA9: Untimely post-trial motion to suppress not even considered on appeal
“Ellis also argues that the police officers’ search of his rental car resulted from an unconstitutionally prolonged traffic stop and was unsupported by probable cause. He pressed this claim in a post-trial motion that was untimely under Federal Rule of … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Abandonment in flight from arrest under alleged illegal warrant still abandonment
Fleeing an arrest under what is now alleged to be an invalid warrant and abandoning property is still abandonment. United States v. Pool, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 138465 (N.D. Ohio July 21, 2025). There was probable cause for plaintiff’s arrest … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Being a longtime member of a group that shared CP supported PC for defendant’s devices
“Given the length of Estrada’s membership in the two groups, the volume of files depicting child pornography shared during Estrada’s membership, and the detailed description of a file shared while Estrada was a participant in one of the groups, the … Continue reading
C.D.Cal. denies stay in immigration stops without RS
Perdomo v. Noem, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137993 (C.D. Cal. July 17, 2025), posted here, holds that reasonable suspicion is required for immigration stops and race alone isn’t enough. The government’s motion for stay pending appeal is denied. Without more … Continue reading
DC: Flight even in a high crime area isn’t RS
Relying on the en banc opinion in Mayo v. United States, 315 A.3d 606 (D.C. 2024), flight in a high-crime area is not reasonable suspicion. People flee to avoid unnecessary confrontation with the police, who just might be potentially too … Continue reading
CA7: Lifting mattress during protective sweep here wasn’t justified
The protective sweep under a mattress here was unjustified. Protective sweeps have to be based on known facts, not theories. Here, without deciding whether it was justified, on this record, lifting a mattress was unreasonable. There was no reason to … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Roving immigration patrol stops without RS violate 4A
“Roving patrols without reasonable suspicion violate the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution and denying access to lawyers violates the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. What the federal government would have this Court believe—in the face of a mountain of evidence … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Use of translation app to communicate with def slowed the stop, but didn’t make it unreasonable
The officer’s use of a translation app on his cell phone to communicate with defendant didn’t unreasonably extend the stop. If limited questions can be asked, then logically an app can translate. Here, cell coverage was limited so that slowed … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Abandoning three large dogs to flee is more than just “mere refusal to cooperate”
“At the very least, leaving three large dogs effectively unrestrained in a public place to flee from law enforcement certainly amounts to more than the ‘mere refusal to cooperate’ that is protected by the Fourth Amendment. Cf. [Wardlow, 528 U.S. … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Unidentified tipster corroborated by hand-to-hand transactions
The unidentified tipster was corroborated by defendant’s hand-to-hand transactions during surveillance, and that was probable cause. United States v. Mangol, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130023 (W.D. Mo. May 23, 2025). Defendant sought to use the GPS information on his trailer … Continue reading
IA: Video shows officers didn’t slow walk traffic stop for dog sniff
On de novo review, the officers didn’t slow walk the traffic citation to get more time to do the dog sniff. State v. Cox, 2025 Iowa App. LEXIS 567 (July 2, 2025)*:
OH12: Adoption of suppression motion brief by reference on appeal is waiver
Adoption of his suppression motion brief by reference without briefing it was waiver. Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in a conversation with his girlfriend in the presence of a CI. State v. Davis, 2025-Ohio-2382, 2025 Ohio App. LEXIS … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: Reacting defensively to request for consent contributed to RS
[While it was thin,] The officer had reasonable suspicion for a dog sniff, including “react[ing] defensively when asked for consent to search the Sentra by making a facial expression, flailing his arms to the side, and offering unprompted explanations as … Continue reading
CO: Incorporation of SW affidavit saves warrant from lack of particularity
“[T]he warrant in this case authorized collection of location data and certain message content surrounding the crimes. While the warrant could have been more particular by limiting each category using the language ‘related to the crimes,’ the warrant’s incorporation of … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Someone actually succeeds in a Franks challenge
Defendant succeeds in a Franks challenge: Defendant’s case arose because the officer swore that defendant matched a surveillance video of a robbery. He really believed it, but he was wrong because there were obvious reasons to discount his belief. The … Continue reading
CO: Three-day delay between seizure of defendant’s car and getting SW for it was reasonable
Three-day delay between seizure of defendant’s car and getting a warrant to search was reasonable. People v. Mills, 2025 CO 47, 2025 Colo. LEXIS 572 (June 30, 2025). Defendant’s cell phone was linked to his prostitution/human trafficking case, so there … Continue reading
NY4: First search missed cache of drugs, so police came back for a second search; first search admissible at trial
Officers got a search warrant for defendant’s premises and searched. Two days later, they discovered through a source that they missed a cache of drugs in the house. They came back with another. The results of the first search were … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Search of international letter in D.C. was valid as border search
Search of an international letter on arrival in D.C. was valid as a border search. United States v. Martin, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 123023 (D.D.C. June 27, 2025).* There was reasonable suspicion for the officer’s encounter with defendant who was … Continue reading