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- CA6: Despite two guns being suppressed from arrest on bare-bones arrest affidavit, third gun was later validly seized by independent source
- D.Md.: Govt’s motion to reconsider granted motion to suppress denied; arguments now are too late
- CA4: Cell phone non-forensic border search doesn’t require individualized suspicion
- ND: Probation search of cell phone was reasonable
- Vanguard: SF Court Dismisses Felony Charges after Judge Finds Racial Bias Tainted SFPD Stop and Arrest
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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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Section 1983 Blog -
"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.Kan.: 37 day old knowledge of def’s suspended DL wasn’t stale for RS for a stop
The officer’s prior knowledge that defendant’s license was expired wasn’t considered stale for a stop, even for 37 days. [It’s a stop on reasonable suspicion, not a search on probable cause.] United States v. Bell, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62616 … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Just because the officer had “unquestioned command of the situation” during a traffic stop doesn’t preclude conducting a frisk for weapons
Just because the officer had “unquestioned command of the situation” during a traffic stop doesn’t preclude the officer from conducting a frisk for weapons. Here, the stop was at night, in a high crime area, there were only streetlights, and … Continue reading
CA9: Def’s conduct showed abandonment of laptop at another’s house while he was in jail
Defendant lost any reasonable expectation of privacy in his laptop computer. It was in somebody else’s house, and he was missing for three months as far as they were concerned, but he was in jail. He could have asserted control … Continue reading
CA2: Def’s attempted flight from a stop added to the RS
Officers were on a drug stakeout and saw the defendant watching the street, although there were no cars. He went in a building and came out with a plastic bag with a brick shaped object in the bottom. Officers tried … Continue reading
OH8: Being legally parked in a “high gang area” is not reasonable suspicion
Being legally parked in a “high gang area” is not reasonable suspicion. State v. Jackson, 2017-Ohio-1369, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 1420 (8th Dist. April 13, 2017). Fake drugs were substituted for the real thing in a delivery to a house … Continue reading
To what degree is RS near the border delegated to the Border Patrol?
On the totality of circumstances, there was reasonable suspicion. “Keeping in mind that border patrol agents, not courts, are trained to detect smugglers, and ‘[t]he facts are to be interpreted in light of a trained officer’s experience,’ United States v. … Continue reading
D.Utah: Officer asked dispatch not to report records check so he could do dog sniff; they sent it 7-8 seconds after dog alerted, and this didn’t “measurably extend” stop
Dog alert in 7-8 seconds after dispatch called with the results of the record check did not “measurably” extend the stop, although the officer asked dispatch to hold off so he could do the dog sniff. “Though Trooper Wood asked … Continue reading
GA: Statute on return of property must be followed; can’t apply to court first
In a juvenile proceeding, recovery of the juvenile’s cell phone required following a statutory procedure which wasn’t. One can’t just apply to the court first. The further claim that retention of the phone violated the Fourth Amendment wasn’t raised below … Continue reading
WV: Drug dog arrived and worked before ticket was finished; neither occupant had DLs, so the dog didn’t lengthen the stop
“As in Brock, the record on appeal in the instant case shows that the mission of the traffic stop was not completed at the time the dog sniff occurred. Officer Boggess testified that he was only approximately ‘three-quarters of the … Continue reading
LA4: In school handoff from suspected MJ dealer to another student was RS as to the latter
In a school, one student who was a suspected marijuana dealer handed something to another student. That was reasonable suspicion as to the recipient. “Here, Mr. Gaddies observed K.L. receive something from a student known to have issues with marijuana. … Continue reading
CA7: Officer did not violate 4A in reasonably handcuffing road rage suspect until RS dissipated
The district court erred in not granting summary judgment to the officer in this § 1983 case for his use of handcuffs on the plaintiff in his mid-60’s. There was reasonable suspicion for his stop as a suspect in a … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Driving somebody to a stash house isn’t probable cause for your house
The affidavit for the search warrant completely failed to show probable cause for defendant’s house. The fact he drove somebody to a stash house isn’t probable cause to believe he’s involved in the stash house and its drug trafficking organization. … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Def’s actions gave RS for cell phone and computer searches when he came into O’Hare from the Philippines; he’d already been selected for secondary inspection
Defendant arrived at O’Hare on a flight from the Philippines. The government described how they took the passenger manifest of incoming flights and looked for likely candidates for a secondary search of computers and cell phones. Defendant had been there … Continue reading
SD: No corroboration of CI’s tip voided stop, even under Navarrette
“In each of the foregoing decisions, the stop at issue was upheld either because of independent observation by law-enforcement officers or because the tip itself demonstrated the informant’s basis of knowledge for alleging criminal conduct. In this case, the report … Continue reading
CA11: When one in a group in a high crime area flinches on seeing the police, others with him are subject to investigative detention
Officers approached a group of men standing in a high crime area, and one of them flinched on seeing the police. That was reasonable suspicion as to him and at least permitted a brief detention of the others in the … Continue reading
Slate: The Second Amendment vs. the Fourth Amendment
Slate: The Second Amendment vs. the Fourth Amendment by Mark Joseph Stern: Does exercising your right to carry a gun diminish your other constitutional protections? The American judiciary is currently engaged in a vigorous debate that can be summed up … Continue reading
Cal.1: Telling def to keep hands out of pockets and move to sidewalk was not a seizure
Defendant was not detained when officers asked him to keep his hands out of his pockets and to step onto the sidewalk. The encounter did not become a detention until the officers used force to grab defendant’s arm and told … Continue reading
D.R.I.: Running a criminal background check during a traffic stop is reasonably part of the stop; RS not required
Defendant’s car was stopped because the passenger didn’t have his seatbelt on. A criminal background check was run, and it was part of the stop and did not require separate justification. That was enough to order defendant out of the … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Officers on consent search saw cell phone in plain view and they knew it would have evidence on it; seizure proper
The court assumes without deciding that defendant had standing to challenge the search of his sister’s house because, although he was kicked out because of an arrest warrant for him, she let him back in to take a shower, charge … Continue reading
IL: A hunch a man on the street has a gun in Chicago isn’t reason for a stop because of the state right to keep and bear arms
A hunch that a man on the street might have had a gun wasn’t reason for a stop because of the right to keep and bear arms. People v. Horton, 2017 IL App (1st) 142019, 2017 Ill. App. LEXIS 218 … Continue reading