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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)
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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: Informant hearsay
N.D.Cal.: Searching a Bible during a house drug search was reasonable in case it was hollowed out
Searching a Bible during a house drug search was reasonable in case it was hollowed out. A page was dog eared and noted as potentially relevant to the case. Opening the Bible was reasonable under the circumstance. The case starts … Continue reading
CA2: Protective sweep justified in executing arrest warrant for murder suspect
The protective sweep of defendant’s Florida home was justified because he was wanted for murder during a drug trafficking crime. Officers saw pictures of defendant with gang members, and defendant consented to their seizure. United States v. Guerrero, 2016 U.S. … Continue reading
CT: First time CI credited because of admission against penal interest and detailed information
It was reasonable for the trial court to find probable cause for the warrant of a first time CI who gave a statement against penal interest and gave detailed information about drugs and cash in defendant’s house. State v. Rodriguez, … Continue reading
TN: Citizen informant’s call describing vehicle and LPN involved in apparent drug deal was RS
Citizen informant’s call that a neighbor was dealing drugs out of his house and describing the comings and goings and the LPN and description of the last car was reasonable suspicion for that car’s stop. State v. Foster, 2016 Tenn. … Continue reading
CA11: CI’s trip was not predictive but still [barely] enough to show reliability
The informant’s tip here was enough to show reliability, even though only readily observable facts were relied upon. “In this case, the tip did not predict Brown’s behavior; it only provided past or present information. As such, the tip is … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Gun abandoned in flight from police wasn’t the product of an illegal seizure
Abandoned firearm in flight from the police in an allegedly illegal stop isn’t a seizure, and the gun is admissible. United States v. Giles, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 200 (W.D.Pa. Jan. 4, 2016).* The CI’s tip was that he’d seen … Continue reading
MA rejects Navarette on anonymous 911 calls but still finds reasonable suspicion from observation of driving
An anonymous 911 caller reported defendant’s erratic driving, and that led to defendant’s stop after the officer saw it for himself. Reliance on Navarette is rejected. “We decline to endorse the Supreme Court’s reliance on the use of the 911 … Continue reading
IN: Concerned citizen report of man likely with gun was sufficient for encounter
Identified citizen informant’s 911 call that a man in the neighborhood appeared to be armed was reason for a police encounter with the defendant who became more skittish as they talked. Concerned citizen tips are important and should be acted … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Rodriguez violated where def told he was “good to go” but officer then said turn pockets inside out
The officer told defendant that he was “good to go” but sought consent to go through his pockets and then told him to turn the pockets inside out. That was a Rodriguez violation, and the motion to suppress is granted. … Continue reading
PA: Anonymous tip that a parolee had marijuana in his house wasn’t sufficient for RS for a parole search
Anonymous tip that a parolee had marijuana in his house wasn’t sufficient for reasonable suspicion for a parole search, despite the lesser expectation of privacy that a parolee has. Commonwealth v. Coleman, 2015 PA Super 258, 2015 Pa. Super. LEXIS … Continue reading
LA2: It isn’t required that occurrence of a crime actually happened, but it is really important to PC
“Although certainty of knowledge of the commission of a particular crime is frequently an important factor in the determination of probable cause, probable cause may exist when the commission of a crime has not been definitely established, but is reasonably … Continue reading
A.F.Ct.Crim.App.: Spousal privilege as hearsay doesn’t prevent SW from issuing
Under United States v. Lovell, 8 M.J. 613 (A.F.C.M.R. 1979), “testimonial privilege conferred by Mil. R. Evid. 504 does not extend to preventing a spouse from furnishing evidence which provides probable cause for authorizing a search. This precedent would have … Continue reading
CA6 explains in detail informant hearsay in a close case
The informant hearsay shows probable cause for the search warrant. The court provides a detailed analysis of how informant hearsay is evaluated. On the totality of circumstances, probable cause was shown. United States v. Howard, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 20705 … Continue reading
IN: Officer’s stop for no paper license except in rear window was unreasonable because it was now lawful to have it there
State law had changed a year before defendant’s stop to allow for temporary plates to be hung in the rear window. Defendant was stopped for no license plate. As the officer approached, he could see a plate in the rear … Continue reading
OH12: Passenger’s nervous behavior more significant than driver’s
Defendant was not a listed driver on the rental agreement and he failed to keep eye contact with the officer during the stop. “Hill’s nervous behavior is more significant because as the passenger of the Impala, he did not commit … Continue reading
NY3: It’s not IAC to not listen to the audio of the SW application where there was a motion to suppress for lack of PC
Defense counsel was not ineffective for not listening to the audio of the oral application for the search warrant challenging probable cause. The defense moved to suppress on lack of PC, and it was denied by the trial court and … Continue reading
AL: Federal adoption of a forfeiture deprives the state court of jurisdiction to order return of property
Federal adoption of a forfeiture deprives the state court of jurisdiction to order return of property. Gray v. City of Opelika, 2015 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 254 (Nov. 6, 2015). A traffic offense justified this stop, then “the smell of … Continue reading
CA1: CI corroborated by two observed controlled buys
The CI was already corroborated by database searches that her basic information about defendant was correct [which isn’t saying much], but the real corroboration was the officer observing two controlled buys from the defendant. United States v. White, 2015 U.S. … Continue reading
C.D.Ill.: Before and after a CI does a controlled buy, there is no constitutional requirement that the CI be subjected to a body cavity search
Before and after a CI does a controlled buy, there is no constitutional requirement that the CI be subjected to a body cavity search. United States v. Sidwell, 440 F.3d 865, 869 (7th Cir. 2006); United States v. Garcia, 983 … Continue reading