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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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--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
S.D.Ohio: Def’s companion’s frisk showed def he was next, so he was seized, but it was with RS
The frisk of defendant’s companion indicated to him that he was seized, too, and that he’d be frisked before he fled and discarded the gun. Still, there was reasonable suspicion for the seizure, and the motion to suppress the gun … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: LPN scanner produced warrant for car owner, but driver was wrong gender; with other people in car, officer can assume owner in car
When a license plate scanner alerts on a car that the registered owner has a warrant and the driver is not the same gender as the owner, the officer can assume, for reasonableness or reasonable suspicion purposes, that one of … Continue reading
NE: Reach under seat during traffic stop was RS
The officer suspected that a wanted person was in the car defendant was in and stopped it. As he approached the car, the driver reached under the seat. The wanted person wasn’t found, but there was reasonable suspicion from the … Continue reading
D.Md.: 2255 Franks IAC claim fails for not showing what the false statements were and how PC was undermined
Defendant’s 2255 Franks IAC claim fails for not showing what the false statements were and how probable cause was undermined. United States v. Johnson, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112806 (D. Md. July 20, 2017). Defendant’s moving his hands around in … Continue reading
DC: Time and proximity to a crime are important in RS, but here it was lacking
Time and proximity are important in the reasonable suspicion calculus. The closer in time with proximity to the scene of a crime, the more likely the suspect is involved in the suspected or already occurred criminal activity. Here, however, two … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Single key in the ignition adds nothing to RS
The stop was unreasonably prolonged without reasonable suspicion. All the officer had was nervousness (belied by the video), one passenger had no bag in the car, and a single key was in the ignition. United States v. Flores, 2017 U.S. … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Def’s criminal history alone wasn’t RS to extend the stop under Rodriguez
The officer had no reasonable suspicion to extend defendant’s traffic stop after stopping him for no headlights on and using a cell phone. Once defendant’s criminal record popped up, the inquiry got more intense and lengthy. Nothing about defendant’s behavior … Continue reading
D.Utah: Repeated flushing of toilet in a hotel room added to PC
“All of these facts, taken in their totality, support a finding of probable cause. There was a fair probability that the Defendant was present in room #209 based upon the informant’s tip indicating he was there, Defendant’s motorcycle found in … Continue reading
OH5: Citizen’s suspicious person call alone doesn’t support a stop
Other than a citizen’s telephone call, the officer admitted there was nothing about defendant that made him look suspicious or that he was up to no good. The stop and frisk was suppressed. State v. Hall, 2017-Ohio-5805; 2017 Ohio App. … Continue reading
TN: A BOLO may be RS
“‘“[A]n alert or BOLO report may provide the reasonable suspicion necessary to justify an investigatory stop.”’ Davila v. United States, 713 F.3d 248, 258 (5th Cir. 2013) (quoting United States v. Rodriguez, 564 F.3d 735, 742 (5th Cir. 2009)); see … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Protective sweep of garage and upstairs was valid; plain view sustained, but search of closed bag suppressed
“[T]he court finds that extending the protective sweep to the garage and the second floor was within the bounds set forth by the Supreme Court in Buie and the First Circuit in United States v. Winston, 444 F.3d 115, 120 … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Video doesn’t support stop; suppressed
The video belies the entire basis for the stop for speeding or swerving, and the court notes that the government previously dismissed three cases from the same officer for credibility issues. The court finds no basis for the stop and … Continue reading
TN: SW for blood in one county can’t be executed in another
A search warrant for defendant’s blood was issued in Lewis County, but defendant was moved to Perry County for the blood draw. The search warrant had no effect in Perry County. State v. Nunnery, 2017 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 622 … Continue reading
DE: Nervousness, criminal history, use of a rental vehicle, and high crime area not RS
“Delaware Courts have held that nervousness, criminal history, and use of a rental vehicle are not supportive of reasonable suspicion unless used in conjunction with ‘more tangible, objectively articulable indicators of criminality.’” Being in a high crime area also wasn’t … Continue reading
NJ rejects a RS requirement for all vehicle dog sniffs
New Jersey adopts the Fourth Amendment standard of Rodriguez, and reasonable suspicion is not required for a dog sniff of a car unless the stop is prolonged for the sniff beyond the mission of the stop. State v. Dunbar, 2017 … Continue reading
OR: Def being under influence of drugs isn’t per se RS he’s in possession
Defendant was likely under the influence, but the officer lacked reasonable suspicion that he was in possession of drugs for the detention. State v. Davis, 286 Ore. App. 528, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 861 (July 6, 2017):
D.Vt.: Officers had RS when they told def to roll his window down
“Because they had a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, the BPD officers were entitled to exert a minimal restraint on Defendant’s freedom of movement by directing him to roll down his vehicle’s windows in order to investigate further.” “In the … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: Supposition isn’t enough to discredit officer’s testimony about the stop
The court finds the officer’s testimony credible: “The court is likewise unpersuaded by the defendants’ arguments that Arwood’s testimony regarding the events of the day and his reason for stopping defendants’ vehicle lacks credibility. Defendants raise a litany of concerns … Continue reading
MI: Video showed the stop was extended without RS
Defendant’s seizure after a traffic stop was without reasonable suspicion under Rodriguez. “We have reviewed the relevant testimony as well as the complete video/audio recording of the encounter from Daniels’s first observation of defendant’s car through the arrest. On the … Continue reading