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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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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)
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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: Collective knowledge
N.D.Ind.: Collective knowledge doctrine doesn’t require any specifics be held by officer making the stop
Under the collective knowledge doctrine, the officer actually making the stop doesn’t have to know much of anything that the officers with knowledge know. Nothing needs to be communicated, other than the identity of the person or car stopped. There … Continue reading
FL1: Collective knowledge applies to affidavit for SW in CP case
The affiant on a child pornography search warrant doesn’t have to personally view the material. He can relate what another officer said who did see it under the collective knowledge doctrine. Mardosas v. State, 2018 Fla. App. LEXIS 14012 (Fla. … Continue reading
D.Conn.: Targetted burner phone ringing during stop on RS was PC for def’s arrest
CIs gave information that they bought drugs from a guy with a burner phone, and the phone was ultimately linked to defendant. Based on collective knowledge, the police had sufficient information for reasonable suspicion to stop and detain defendant. Defendant … Continue reading
CA4: Collective knowledge doctrine doesn’t require reporting back to the source
The CI’s information viewed under the totality provided reasonable suspicion for the stop of defendant. [Defendant’s approach was divide and conquer the facts.] The collective knowledge doctrine does not require the stopping and arresting officer keep the officer providing the … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Flight from a potential encounter in a high crime area is RS; detention after that was reasonable based on collective knowledge
Flight from a potential encounter in a high crime area is reasonable suspicion. Detention after that was reasonable based on collective knowledge. The court also addresses at length vertical and horizontal collective knowledge and follows the Fourth Circuit rule that … Continue reading
VI: BOLO information shared at beginning of shift satisfies collective knowledge
BOLO information shared with officers at the beginning of their shift qualifies as collective knowledge. Emanuel v. People, 2018 V.I. Supreme LEXIS 10 (June 15, 2018) (relying on United States v. Braden, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 115755 (W.D. Tenn. July … Continue reading
PA: Second officer arriving at scene knew enough for collective knowledge to apply; full (and unnecessary) discussion of vertical v. horizontal collective knowledge if you’re interested
Pennsylvania adheres to the vertical approach of collective knowledge. Here, another officer got involved and made the decision to arrest, but he knew what the first officer knew, and that was enough. This was still collective knowledge. (There is a … Continue reading
M.D.La.: Finding CP image hash values on a computer is PC for search
The finding of child pornography hash values on a computer is probable cause for further search of the computer. United States v. Sherlock, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1321 (M.D. La. Jan. 4, 2018).* Playpen warrant sustained, and there was no … Continue reading
CA11: RS can be found by collective knowledge
Probable cause to search defendant’s vehicle existed based on officers’ collective knowledge, including a tip from an informant who had recently been found with cocaine, identified defendant as his primary supplier, and described how she hid cocaine under her car’s … Continue reading
PA: Collective knowledge and RS doesn’t require the officer with knowledge actually communicate it to the others
Collective knowledge and reasonable suspicion doesn’t require the officer with knowledge actually communicate it to the others. “It is entirely permissible for an officer to engage in the investigation of a suspect based on the observations of another officer even … Continue reading
OH10: Stopping the first person officers see after hearing gunshots was without RS
Officers heard gunshots and stopped the first person they saw. That essentially was a stop on a hunch and without reasonable suspicion. State v. Hairston, 2017-Ohio-7612, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 3934 (10th Dist. Sept. 14, 2017). “Here, the team of … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Under collective knowledge doctrine, the officer making the stop doesn’t need to know the PC
There was probable cause from collective knowledge for defendant’s stop and the search of his vehicle for a hidden compartment with drugs, even though the stopping officer didn’t know what it was. United States v. Isshpunani, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: A “Car-Mart” advertisement in place of the license plate was RS for a stop to inquire whether vehicle just purchased or not
“Thus, having viewed the ‘Car-Mart’ advertisement serving as Defendant’s license tag or plate, Cpl. Williams possessed reasonable suspicion to believe that Defendant was in violation of those laws” about getting a car licensed within 20 days of purchase, so the … Continue reading
CA4: Even if consent invalid, PC for SW came from independent sources
“[T]he district court did not err in denying Hernandez’s motion to suppress the evidence obtained from the Samsung T199 phone because the search pursuant to the warrant was ‘genuinely independent’ of the initial search. Murray, 487 U.S. at 542.” United … Continue reading
CA10: Collective knowledge applies between state officers in different states
Kansas officers asked Nebraska officers to stop defendant, and the probable cause of the Kansas officers is imputed to Nebraska officers under the collective knowledge doctrine. United States v. Pickel, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 12858 (10th Cir. July 18, 2017). … Continue reading
CA5: Collective knowledge from narcs applies to justification for traffic stop
The totality of the circumstances did not dictate a finding that a turn-signal violation was too stale to justify stopping defendant’s vehicle. A lack of personalized suspicion on the part of the officer who stopped defendant’s vehicle was immaterial because … Continue reading
D.Colo.: Collective knowledge doctrine does not require that the officer requesting a stop actually tell the other officers the reason why
The collective knowledge doctrine does not require that the officer requesting a stop actually tell the other officers the reason why. United States v. Rubio-Sepulveda, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23866 (D. Colo. Feb. 21, 2017):
S.D.Fla.: Collective knowledge requires that the stopping officers have some knowledge of the reason for the stop
Collective knowledge doesn’t apply where the officers making the stop were not informed of what the DEA didn’t communicate. The stop was, however, valid based on traffic violations. The drug dog showed up while the main part of the traffic … Continue reading
VT: Probation officer’s home visit is not a search
A probation officer’s home visit is not a search. Levitt v. State, 2016 VT 60, ¶ 32. State v. Albarelli, 2016 VT 119, 2016 Vt. LEXIS 121 (Nov. 18, 2016). The DUI roadblock in this case was established in accord … Continue reading
D.Guam: Traffic ticket delayed by 20 min, but RS existed on collective knowledge
The officer delayed writing the traffic ticket in this case for 20 minutes after the report back on defendant’s license, so Rodriguez was seemingly violated. So, the question is reasonable suspicion. The collective knowledge doctrine, however, of reasonable suspicion gives … Continue reading