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Recent Posts
- 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
D.Vt.: CI’s information was too generic and didn’t provide RS for stop
The fact the CI said defendant was an African-American female on a bus from Burlington to NYC was not so distinctive to rise to reasonable suspicion, and her detention was unreasonable. Thus, the drugs seized from her are suppressed. United … Continue reading
D.V.I.: Citizen informant’s tip was corroborated by important details and justified stop
The citizen informant’s tip defendant was the person wanted in a carjacking was alone not enough to make a stop, but here it was corroborated by significant details. “Accordingly, considering the totality of the circumstances in this case, the Court … Continue reading
OH8: Snitch proved false when search of def’s person turned up nothing so search of car unjustified
Based on the snitch’s report that defendant had drugs on his person, officers searched him and found nothing. Therefore, the search of his car was invalid. Defense counsel’s failure to file a motion to suppress was thus IAC. State v. … Continue reading
IN: Passenger had no standing to challenge GPS warrant for car
Defendant was the passenger in a car that was operated by a person the police suspected was a serial burglar. They secured a GPS warrant, and they followed the car from a distance. They followed it to another county and … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: CI was adequately corroborated and predictive info proved correct
The CI had been working with the drug officers for four months, and his significant information had been significantly corroborated. He also accurately predicted that $400,000 would be packaged and shipped by defendant. That was probable cause. United States v. … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Protective sweep justified by arrest on weapons charges, somebody peeking through blinds, and sounds from inside
Officers executing an arrest warrant for weapons charges had reasonable suspicion for a protective sweep based on sounds from the basement and somebody peeking through the blinds. United States v. Alatorre, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69171 (D.Neb. May 26, 2016). … Continue reading
GA: Forfeiture answer pleading illegal search and seizure has to plead facts
“Loveless also complains that the trial court erred by striking his Answer when he had raised therein a sufficient defense, namely that the search and seizure occurred in violation of the Fourth Amendment. However, the Answer did not include those … Continue reading
CA11: Handling a key fob during a consent search for drugs was not unreasonable because there was RS
The person who rented the motel room for defendant and another still had the key and equal access to the room to consent to its search. In a consent search of the room for drugs in a suspected drug dealing … Continue reading
CA4: Failure to make eye contact or acknowledge police not RS
Defendant was stopped because he was the only person seen in a three block radius from a shots fired call. His failure to respond to the police or make eye contact was ambiguous and within his rights, so it couldn’t … Continue reading
Cal.6: RS existed for only a few seconds and dissipated but police continued the detention; consent came during invalid arrest
Defendant consented to a patdown which produced a small hard object that resulted in his handcuffing. It was a diamond, and the handcuffing stopped, but the stop didn’t. “We agree with defendant that, once police realized the object was a … Continue reading
D.Ore.: Admission of drugs in car, an illegal knife, lying about another knife, and an arrest warrant was RS for a weapons search
After a valid traffic stop, officers had reasonable suspicion to search a bag for weapons based on an admission by one occupant there were drugs in the car, an outstanding felony warrant on the driver, and two knives (one illegal … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: The inferences for RS offered here simply aren’t reasonable
After a robbery report, the two apparent suspects had been arrested. Yet, the investigation continued and stopped defendant in the vicinity, and the inferences used to justify it aren’t even reasonable. “Even crediting Deputy Niles’s testimony that store robberies typically … Continue reading
IN: Blanket probation search condition was valid
Defendant was told he had a blanket search condition as a condition of probation. Prior case law in Indiana has held that reasonable suspicion isn’t required, and this court can’t and won’t change it. Hodges v. State, 2016 Ind. App. … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Def’s stop here was really no more than on a hunch; RS lacking for mere proximity to a crime
On the totality, officers lacked reasonable suspicion to stop defendant for mere proximity to a crime. The government’s hypotheticals don’t overcome that this was essentially a hunch. She stared straight ahead when there were a bunch of police cars around, … Continue reading
NC: Lack of findings on justification for stop required; remanded
The basis of the stop was no valid tags, but that was wrong. Yet the trial court found the stop “justified.” “This conclusion consists of a statement of law, followed by the conclusion that Detective O’Hal was ‘justified’ in initiating … Continue reading
OH: Court couldn’t order return of property where statute gave executive branch discretion to not return
A warrant was issued to permit ODA officers to enter property to look for wild animals being kept there. The warrant did not require seizure but referred to the statute that vests that discretion in the Director. The judge thus … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Fleeing police, crashing car, and running away from it is abandonment
Defendant abandoned the car he was in: “after being pursued by officers at high speeds for several city blocks, Crenshaw drove the green Cadillac across a vacant lot, crashed it against the side of a private residence, exited the vehicle, … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Domestic violence call wasn’t immediately before police arrival, but there was no objective evidence danger had dissipated either
The officer here had a reasonable belief that there had recently been a domestic battery on the premises, the door was open, and no one was visible. “Thus, there was no objective evidence to suggest that any imminent threat posed … Continue reading