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- D.Utah: Minor time detours to writing up a traffic ticket didn’t unreasonable extend this stop; the dog was quickly on its way
- KY: Despite lack of nexus, SW sustained under GFE
- CO: DNA could be seized from trash
- CA8: Nebraska statute allowing SWs to cross state lines doesn’t violate 4A
- WA: Sweat patch as condition of release violated state constitution’s privacy provision
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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
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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)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (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
IN: No REP in bank records in securities investigation
The state securities department subpoenaed petitioner’s bank records. He has no privacy interest in them under the Fourth or Fifth Amendment. Peabody v. State Office of the Sec’y of State Sec. Div., 2025 Ind. App. LEXIS 328 (Oct. 3, 2025). … Continue reading
Slate: There’s a New Lawsuit Against “Kavanaugh Stops.” It’s Absolutely Devastating.
Slate: There’s a New Lawsuit Against “Kavanaugh Stops.” It’s Absolutely Devastating. by Dahlia Lithwick & Mark Joseph Stern:
Reason.com: ICE Arrested a U.S. Citizen—Twice—During Alabama Construction Site Raids. Now He’s Suing.
Reason.com: ICE Arrested a U.S. Citizen—Twice—During Alabama Construction Site Raids. Now He’s Suing. by C.J. Ciaramella (“‘I got arrested twice for being a Latino working in construction,’ says Leo Garcia Venegas, the lead plaintiff in a new lawsuit filed by … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: When officer knows RS for stop ceases to exist, checking license and papers unreasonable
Having discovered that there was no legal basis for defendant’s stop, asking for papers unreasonably extended the stop. “Broadening Rodriguez to allow officers to inspect documents when they are already aware that no violation has occurred would effectively sanction random … Continue reading
LAT: The 4th Amendment will no longer protect you
LAT: The 4th Amendment will no longer protect you by Daniel Harawa & Kate Weisburd:
CA2: RS for stop for not pulling over for emergency vehicle
Stop was valid for failing to move over for an emergency vehicle on the side of the road. United States v. Overton, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 25125 (2d Cir. Sep. 29, 2025).* Smell of marijuana from defendant’s car was probable … Continue reading
PA: Whether an area is “high crime” for RS purposes needs to be evaluated with caution
“We granted discretionary review to consider the quantum of evidence necessary to prove an area is high in crime, such that a suppression court may properly consider that fact among the totality of the circumstances when assessing whether reasonable suspicion … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Affidavit emailed with SW to judge was considered “attached”
In overcoming a warrant particularity challenge cured by the affidavit, the government satisfied its burden that the affidavits in support of the warrant were emailed to the issuing judge as two pdf files in the same email. They weren’t, of … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Officer’s mere belief def might be the shooter in an incident based on history alone isn’t RS
An officer’s alleged belief that defendant was capable of being the shooter in an incident based on his history isn’t reasonable suspicion. United States v. Neville, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186545 (E.D. Va. Sep. 22, 2025):
S.D.N.Y.: No § 1983 claim for officer’s wrongfully obtaining ALPR information for personal reasons
Plaintiff’s § 1983 claim that a police officer used ALPR technology to track her for personal reasons didn’t state a Fourth Amendment claim because of the lack of a reasonable expectation of privacy in LPN information. “Here, even if Carpenter … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: No REP in bankruptcy trustee records
A person forced into bankruptcy has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his firm records. United States v. Girardi, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186007 (C.D. Cal. Sep. 19, 2025). Defendant well argued his suppression motion in state court and he … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog: “Roving patrols,” reasonable suspicion, and Perdomo
SCOTUSBlog: “Roving patrols,” reasonable suspicion, and Perdomo by Rory Little:
IA: RS for this DUI stop was the gait of def walking toward his car
Reasonable suspicion for this DUI stop was the gait of defendant walking toward his car. State v. Nockels, 2025 Iowa App. LEXIS 812 (Sep. 17, 2025). Plaintiff was hurt during police response to a domestic dispute. “Hoover filed this suit … Continue reading
AR: Taking two minutes to review a SW application doesn’t make issuing judge not neutral and detached
The search warrant application was emailed to the issuing magistrate, and the warrant came back in two minutes. That doesn’t show that the judge was not neutral and detached because “an experienced judge can prudently review a succinct, factually detailed … Continue reading
S.D.Cal.: Handcuffing DV detainee was reasonable, but search of his bag was without RS
Officers responding to a 911 call about alleged domestic violence in public handcuffed defendant. This was reasonable at the time. Reasonable suspicion for a search of the cross body bag on him was lacking. He was handcuffed, there was no … Continue reading
NYT: Supreme Court Lifts Restrictions on L.A. Immigration Stops
NYT: Supreme Court Lifts Restrictions on L.A. Immigration Stops by Adam Liptak (“federal judge had ordered agents not to make indiscriminate stops relying on factors like a person’s ethnicity or that they speak Spanish.”) The order is here. Kavanaugh, J., … Continue reading
ID: Drug dog’s nose touching a car door handle was not a search
Drug dog’s nose touching a car door handle was not a search. State v. Pendleton, 2025 Ida. App. LEXIS 38 (Aug. 29, 2025). The defendant officer violated no reasonable expectation of privacy by accessing plaintiff’s public Facebook posts. Dicks v. … Continue reading
MD: Blading to hide a heavy pocket apparently with a gun in high crime area contributed to RS
Attempting to conceal an apparent gun in a high crime area contributed to reasonable suspicion. “The State argues that the court did not err. According to the State, the detective testified about his specific observations that gave rise to a … Continue reading
W.D.Wis.: § 1983 search claim producing $4,000 damages verdict supported $84,690 in attorneys fees
Plaintiff’s § 1983 search claim produced a damages verdict for $500 compensatory and $3500 punitive. The attorney’s fees award of $84,690.00 is granted. Pfalzgraf v. Reisner, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 168405 (W.D. Wis. Aug. 28, 2025). Cracked windshield and tinted … Continue reading
ID: Extraterritorial arrest doesn’t violate state constitution
An extraterritorial arrest does not violate the search and seizure provision of the state constitution, like it doesn’t under the Fourth Amendment. The remedies for statutory violations aren’t in the exclusionary rule. State v. Satterfield, 2025 Ida. App. LEXIS 37 … Continue reading