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- CA4: Cell phone non-forensic border search doesn’t require individualized suspicion
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- OH7: Magistrate signing SW for something outside of territorial jurisdiction not a 4A violation
- OH2: Stop outside the officer’s jurisdiction doesn’t violate 4A
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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: Reasonable suspicion
D.Nev.: Lack of a front license plate is RS for a stop
The officers here noticed no front license plate, and they turned around and defendant fled. That was reasonable suspicion. United States v. Hodgkin, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 199936 (D. Nev. May 24, 2017),* adopted, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 199426 (D. … Continue reading
OH8: Anonymous call about drug dealing from car led officers to defendants; smell of burning MJ led to valid search of car
The officer received an anonymous call about drug deals being done from a car in a shopping center parking lot. He pulled up to a parked car to check it out and it was occupied and smelled of burning marijuana. … Continue reading
D.Me.: CP on a cell phone is nexus to CP being on a computer
Child pornography on defendant’s cell phone is nexus to his computer. Computers are common storage devices for cell phone pictures and information. “Common sense suggests that if an individual has images of child pornography downloaded to one electronic device, the … Continue reading
IN: Second patdown had its own RS def was still armed
Defendant was hostile and aggressive toward officers, and a second patdown was conducted after he was handcuffed finding a gun. His actions continued and heightened concern that he had a weapon on him. J.R. v. State, 2017 Ind. App. LEXIS … 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
D.Nev.: Def’s losing an SD card with CP on it wasn’t abandonment; but he loses because there was PC for SW
Defendant claimed he lost an SD card, and it ended up stuck to his girlfriend’s leg, and she discovered it when she wasn’t around him. He didn’t abandon it, so he had standing. The girlfriend put the SD card in … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Citizen’s complaint of trespassing with a vehicle days earlier was RS for a stop
Citizen complaint defendant’s vehicle was trespassing was a valid basis for a stop a few days later. United States v. Arredondo, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 199737 (D. Neb. Nov. 18, 2017),* adopted, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 199357 (D. Neb. Dec. … Continue reading
OH10: Def who drove away from home before SW was executed could not be searched away from the house
Defendant left his house before the search warrant arrived. Under Bailey, he could not be stopped and searched away from the house. State v. Muldrow, 2017-Ohio-8839, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 5272 (10th Dist. Dec. 5, 2017). There was reasonable suspicion … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Six month old information in gun sale case wasn’t stale
Defendant was alleged to have sold quantities of firearms more than once. Six month old information in a gun sale case was not stale. United States v. Fisher-Bland, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 199259 (N.D. Ga. Nov. 16, 2017), adopted, 2017 … Continue reading
Guam: If no criminal case pending, motion for return of property can be treated as a new civil action
If a criminal case is not pending, a motion for return of property is treated as a new civil action, and should proceed accordingly (following state and federal cases, most recently Pristine Pre-Owned Auto, Inc. v. Courrier, 236 W. Va. … Continue reading
CA2: Traffic stop ignored traffic inquiries and went into carrying drugs within 5 minutes; unreasonable under Rodriguez but valid at time, so GFE applies
“This appeal arises out of a traffic stop of Defendant-Appellant Brayan Gomez and his resulting judgment of conviction for heroin-trafficking …. During the five-minute traffic stop prompted by multiple traffic violations, the officers prolonged Gomez’s seizure by asking him narcotics-related … Continue reading
MD follows Strieff on attenuation from preexisting arrest warrant
“[W]here officers observed a group of individuals openly drinking what appeared to be an alcoholic beverage and one of them threw a bottle to the ground, the officers had reasonable suspicion to investigate a potential open container violation and to … Continue reading
NY1: Suppression of firearm in criminal case wasn’t collateral estoppel in civil case where ptf didn’t offer any evidence
Suppression of a firearm in the criminal court was not collateral estoppel to a civil case for false arrest, particularly where plaintiff offered no evidence at all. Davidson v. City of New York, 2017 NY Slip Op 08313, 2017 N.Y. … Continue reading
D.Minn.: DHS could stop airplane on ground for pilot certificate inspection; after PC found, airplane subject to automobile exception because of mobility
Federal officers can seek a pilot certificate inspection (PCI) of any airplane. 14 C.F.R. 61.51(i). “Although it seems obvious that the agents were interested in Defendants’ plane for drugs—and therefore that the PCI was merely a pretext to dig around—officers … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Casing parked cars the weekend before Mardi Gras then all getting in one car was RS
“As noted, the troopers had reasonable suspicion to stop the defendants. The troopers had watched a man, at night, in a high crime area during Mardi Gras, the busiest weekend of the year, peer into several unoccupied vehicles, and then … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Fact POs entered third party’s home to arrest him doesn’t make it unreasonable
POs found defendant parolee at his girlfriend’s house that he was not approved to live in. It was arguable he didn’t have standing, and his reasonable expectation of privacy was reduced there [I think he would have standing as an … Continue reading
D.Me.: Sex offender on parole/probation subject to suspicionless search of computer
Defendant was a sex offender on probation after prison, and he had a search condition. The police and probation had information that he had child pornography on his computer. A probation search of an SD card revealed the child pornography. … Continue reading
D.Neb.: 24 minutes for a stop wasn’t unreasonable under Rodriguez where officer didn’t do anything other than wait for a response on his criminal history check request
Whether a stop was too long for Rodriguez can be fact-bound. Here, while it was all 24 minutes for the criminal history check with the delay in getting information back, the officer wasn’t talking to or questioning the defendant. “The … Continue reading
CA5: COA granted on whether District Court should have held a hearing on IAC claim, but pet’r didn’t brief it. Affirmed.
“Our court granted Pryor a COA on one issue: whether the district court abused its discretion in denying Rule 60(b) relief from the denial of his § 2255 motion, by refusing to consider pages missing from his affidavit in opposition … Continue reading