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- E.D.Mich.: Person a cell phone was given to as gift could consent to search
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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)
--Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--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: Reasonable suspicion
E.D.Pa.: Dashcam video doesn’t support officer’s claim of nervousness
Defendant’s alleged nervousness, on the totality, wasn’t enough for reasonable suspicion. The officer testified to his nervousness, but the video doesn’t support it. The court just does not believe that the officer could see defendant’s heart “pounding” through his t-shirt. … Continue reading
MO: Stop requires RS but arrest requires PC
“Here, the trial court erred in requiring the Director to prove there was reasonable suspicion to justify stopping Williams’ vehicle. The Director was only required to prove there was probable cause to arrest Williams for driving in violation of an … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Body camera video and audio showed the officer was diligent and not prolonging the stop
“Indeed, as pointed out by the magistrate judge, the ‘body camera video and audio demonstrate that Trooper Duckett was working diligently in trying to locate Ms. Glenn’s license information, but it did take some time to find it.’” Finally, the … Continue reading
CA9: Administrative stop of tractor-trailer was pretext for criminal investigation lacking RS; suppressed
Commercial vehicles are subject to administrative stops for compliance inspections without reasonable suspicion. When, however, the use of the stop is predicated on pretext for criminal investigation, the stop and its continuation require reasonable suspicion. Here, that was lacking, and … Continue reading
MA: Nervousness, evasive answers about travels, coming from a source city, and criminal history all not RS
Defendant’s stop for a traffic offense had to end when there was no reasonable suspicion. Here, the government’s arguments for reasonable suspicion are all unavailing: Nervousness, evasive answers about his travels, coming from a source city, and criminal history all … Continue reading
SC: Catching up to def on street and telling him to produce ID was a seizure, here without RS
“Before the agents made contact with Spears, he had walked several hundred feet without the agents engaging him, indicating he was free to continue walking. By increasing their speed to catch up with Spears, the agents indicated to Spears he … Continue reading
MI: Unreasonable mistake of law voids search
Defendant’s arrest was without probable cause for violating a no trespassing ordinance. It was a public place, open for business, defendant briefly entered and did nothing wrong. The search incident to the arrest thus fails too. Mistake of law as … Continue reading
IN: Failure to knock-and-announce is really just a reasonableness argument
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not raising a challenge to the officer’s failure to knock-and-announce before entering defendant’s home on a search warrant for drugs. She had priors, there were controlled buys, and guns often go with drugs. The knock-and-announce … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: Misstatement of crack v. powder cocaine wasn’t Franks violation
In a 2255 case, it wasn’t ineffective assistance for defense counsel to fail to make a Franks challenge to a misstatement of crack v. powder cocaine in a search warrant application. United States v. Moyer, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79279 … Continue reading
FL4: Just being on somebody else’s property is not RS of a crime without more; telling def to “stand by” is a seizure
Defendant’s friends saw a police officer coming and all walked away. Defendant did not. That did not mean that when the encounter started, defendant was free to leave. On this record, he was not, and it was a detention without … Continue reading
MA: Transfer of gun on the street was RS
Transfer of a gun on the street which appeared to be prearranged suggested criminal activity, and thus was reasonable suspicion. Commonwealth v. Suriel, 2017 Mass. App. LEXIS 73 (May 26, 2017). (This is Massachusetts. In an open carry state, this … Continue reading
IN: Stop was reasonably extended because the LPN didn’t match vehicle
A stop was reasonably extended by the officer because the LPN didn’t come back to the vehicle. Browder v. State, 2017 Ind. App. LEXIS 212 (May 22, 2017).* The affidavit for search warrant was not bare bones, and the search … Continue reading
Two car and person searches suppressed for lack of RS
The USMJ “reasonably determined that although there was probable cause to stop the car in which Linaman was traveling for possible traffic violations, …, Deputy Tadlock prolonged the stop beyond the time reasonably required to investigate those violations and without … Continue reading
OH2: Nothing about def or her driving suggested she was under the influence; PBT suppressed
There was no reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop: defendant had not admitted to drinking on the evening of the stop, that her traffic violation had been de minimis, that her speech was not impaired, that neither defendant’s movement when she … Continue reading
IA: Def plead guilty and later overruling of case law suggested the stop was unreasonable; no IAC claim on direct appeal
An LPN check showed the 77 year old owner of the car had an expired DL. When the officer encountered the driver, it was obviously not the owner because of age. It was the owner’s daughter. The officer shortly determined … Continue reading
CA1: 82 minute stop was with RS
Reasonable suspicion developed from defendants’ stop to extend it for 82 minutes. United States v. Ramdihall, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 8727 (1st Cir. May 18, 2017).* Defendant was stopped by police after getting off Amtrak at Minot ND. A great … Continue reading
IA: Plain view of a baggie is enough to seize it without also knowing that there are drugs in it
Plain view of a plastic baggie is enough to seize it without also knowing that there are drugs in it. State v. Taylor, 2017 Iowa App. LEXIS 517 (May 17, 2017). Defendant’s speeding and his condition was reasonable suspicion for … Continue reading
AR: Reasonable suspicion doesn’t require certainty of facts
Reasonable suspicion doesn’t require certainty of facts. Here, the factual belief was that defendant’s DL had been suspended weeks earlier. Williams v. State, 2017 Ark. App. 291, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 301 (May 10, 2017). Defendant’s plea waived his potential … Continue reading