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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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Congressional Research Service:
--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
IA: Def’s father’s search of his stuff was objectively as a concerned parent, not as a LEO so it’s a private search
Defendant’s stepfather was a Davenport police officer, and, off-duty, he searched defendant’s property twice and turned it over to the police. The detail of his actions show him acting as a concerned parent, not as a law enforcement officer. Therefore, … Continue reading
IA: A claim of officer safety has to be objectively justified by the record; Rodriguez followed under state constitution
Iowa adopts Rodriguez under state constitution after a lengthy comparison of its own cases and cases from around the country. A claim of officer safety has to be objectively justified by the record; merely stating it doesn’t make it so. … Continue reading
CA10: Officers pulled up next to def walking along road and finally told him to stop; this was a seizure without RS
Defendant was walking down the street at night and a police car pulled up beside him and officers were talking to him as he walked. Finally they told him to stop. This was a seizure for which there was no … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Def’s evasive movements near and shortly after a shooting call was RS
Defendant’s evasive movements near and shortly after a shooting call that at least partially matched him was reasonable suspicion. “The sum of the information available to the officers when they decided to stop Porter gave them reasonable suspicion that he … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Officers had good reason to know CP on flash drive before looking; SW was based on independent source
Defendant’s house was broken into by neighbors, and they stole things, including a flash drive which defendant had admitted to them in the past had child pornography on it. The police got the flash drive from the neighbor and looked … Continue reading
M.D.La.: Officer’s claim of a burglary in progress and that a protective sweep was justified was completely unjustified
It should have been apparent to the officers that the defendant was a friend of the homeowner and was a guest in the premises, and their entry was unjustified under a claim of a burglary in progress or that a … Continue reading
CO: Dog alert for MJ still justifies a search of a car, even in a MMJ and recreational use state
Even in a recreational and medicinal marijuana state, the smell of marijuana picked up by a dog is probable cause including a search of the trunk. The court rejected the claim that the dog would alert on both legal and … Continue reading
Nervousness and reasonable suspicion
“By now, Deputy Kolbe was confronted with conflicting stories that, individually and collectively, defied common sense and reason. He had accumulated substantial observations of their suspicious behavior, beginning before he initiated the traffic stop and extending through the signs of … Continue reading
CA7: Def had no standing in a car shipped by car hauler being delivered to him that he’d never seen
Defendant had no standing in a car being shipped by a car hauler across the country when it was searched in transit. He was named neither the sender nor the recipient, and he had never been in or seen the … Continue reading
LA2: Arrest of def away from the premises where SW being served unreasonable under Bailey
Defendant was seen leaving the premises when police showed up with a search warrant. Then they went after him and stopped him a distance a way to return him to the scene of the search. The stop lacked reasonable suspicion … Continue reading
LA5: Typo as to IP source in CP case was irrelevant to existence of probable cause
A typographical error as to defendant’s internet provider did not undermine the probable cause for the search warrant for his child pornography on his computer. It has nothing to do with the probable cause. State v. Shiell, 2016 La. App. … Continue reading
Reason: ‘Hit and Run’ Blog: ‘Armed’ is Same as ‘Armed and Dangerous’ When it Comes to Police Searches, 4th Circuit Concludes
Reason: ‘Hit and Run’ Blog: ‘Armed’ is Same as ‘Armed and Dangerous’ When it Comes to Police Searches, 4th Circuit Concludes by Brian Doherty: Opinion from 4th Circuit Court of Appeals implies that exercising your Second Amendment rights means you … Continue reading
NJ: Passenger’s furtive movements justify ordering him from car
A passenger’s furtive movements can justify ordering him out of the car. As an aside, the court chides defense counsel for not addressing the issue before appeal so the parties could develop the record. [Most other states would say it … Continue reading
The Hill: Fourth Circuit shreds civil liberties for public gun carry
The Hill: Fourth Circuit shreds civil liberties for public gun carry by E. Gregory Wallace: Should a person forfeit certain constitutional rights just because he or she chooses to carry a firearm lawfully in public? That’s exactly what a federal … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: No right to return of iPad and iPhone as long as they have evidentiary value, including through appeal
Defendant does not have a right to return of seized property under Rule 41(g) as long as there is potential evidentiary value, including through appeal. Defendant does not claim that his iPad and iPhone weren’t illegally seized to begin with; … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Police reports attached to post-hearing brief not in evidence would not be considered
“[T]he Court does not consider the exhibits that Smith attached to his post-evidentiary hearing brief. These documents presumably were in Defendant’s possession at the time of the evidentiary hearings and could have been used to cross-examine the witnesses. Smith does … Continue reading
OH8: Failure to file a pretrial motion to suppress is a waiver of a 4A claim
Failure to file a pretrial motion to suppress is a waiver of a Fourth Amendment claim. State v. Gibson, 2017-Ohio-102, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 107 (8th Dist. Jan 12, 2017). Defendant was stopped for swerving on the highway. When he … Continue reading
NC: Def waived issue of RS for appeal by arguing PC instead; on merits, there was RS anyway
Defendant abandons his argument that there was no reasonable suspicion for his stop by providing no argument on reasonable suspicion and instead focusing on probable cause. Going to the record, however, the court finds reasonable suspicion for the stop because … Continue reading
NJ: Officer’s entry into def’s home for def to retrieve his ID was without justification and therefore was unreasonable
An investigative stop in an apartment complex parking lot, not based on reasonable suspicion, did not justify following defendant into his home to get his ID, especially after the officer did a quick patdown before they went in. Once inside, … Continue reading
MA: No RS on totality for stop and frisk of the defendant on a shots fired call
On the totality of information, the motions judge erred in concluding that there was reasonable suspicion for defendant. In fact, his findings undermined the holding. Commonwealth v. Meneus, 476 Mass. 231 (Jan. 11, 2017)*: