September 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Archives
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Recent Posts
- WaPo: Americans have turned against police cameras that track license plates, new survey shows
- W.D.Tex.: What is the duty of the neutral and detached magistrate?
- D.Me.: Yes, more investigation could have been done, but there’s still PC on what there was
- CA3: Brady doesn’t apply to SW materials
- 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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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General (many free):
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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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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"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
DE: Patdown unreasonable; state didn’t argue for probation search and court won’t decide that
Defendant was subjected to a patdown that was unreasonable, and it is suppressed. Defendant was on probation then, and the probation search exception could have been relied on but wasn’t. The court won’t argue the state’s case for it. State … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: When def saw police at door, he stepped back, and that justified their coming in to arrest him on a warrant
Defendant’s arrest with a warrant inside his apartment was valid, and the constitution didn’t required he be pulled outside to arrest. He stepped back when he saw the officers and they came in and arrested him. A limited protective sweep … Continue reading
IA: Officer violated Rodriguez by shifting from speeding to drugs and asking for consent which was refused
Defendant was stopped for speeding and seemed nervous. The DL was suspended. A request for consent was made and rejected. The officer completed the paperwork for the traffic stop in six minutes but spent ten minutes attempting to elicit admissions … Continue reading
CA10: State court’s harmlessness determination was binding under Stone v. Powell
Defendant raised the legality of a search in the trial court, but not everything that was seized. The court of criminal appeals considered the remainder and found it harmless error. On habeas, defendant had a full and fair opportunity to … Continue reading
D.R.I.: Protective sweep of car justified by def being, inter alia, in a violent biker gang and having a 19 pg criminal history
Protective sweep of car was justified because defendant was a member of a violent biker gang, nervousness, 19-page criminal history, volunteering he hadn’t been drinking when not asked, among other things. United States v. Severns, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76103 … Continue reading
Dashcam and bodycam undermine reasonable suspicion in two cases
These two make one wonder how many times officers have just fabricated reasonable suspicion and courts have bought it: The dashcam video supports the defendant’s argument that he was stopped without reasonable suspicion of driving with lights off when they … Continue reading
CA3: Officers had PC to believe ptf was in a motor home for entry to arrest
Plaintiff was calling police dispatch from a cell phone. Dispatch was able to trace the cell phone apparently via the 911 system. Officers had an arrest warrant for plaintiff, and they had probable cause to believe that she was in … Continue reading
OH2: Stop was on a hunch and suppressed
Defendant was stopped for having 10 or more scrap tires on his truck which would have required special state registration. The photographs of the truck showed seven tires. The stop was based on a hunch and not reasonable suspicion. The … Continue reading
ND: CI’s info of def carrying meth on Amtrak was corroborated by its details proving otherwise true and another ongoing meth investigation
Defendant was the target of a methamphetamine investigation when DTF officers received information via a CI that she would be arriving on an Amtrak train from Washington State carrying meth. This was in addition to the original meth investigation. When … Continue reading
D.S.D.: Trash bags were about as close to house as street; no REP
Defendant has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his trash bags. There were close to house, but they were as close to the street, and they were ready for collection. United States v. Thompson, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73035 (D.S.D. … Continue reading
NC: Apparent homeless man dragging unconscious woman was reasonable suspicion
One man walking with a limp followed by another apparently homeless man dragging an apparently unconscious woman was reasonable suspicion justifying police inquiry. State v. Sawyers, 2016 N.C. App. LEXIS 608 (June 7, 2016).* A regular drug house was known … Continue reading
MA: Smell of fresh marijuana, nervousness, and rental car not RS to order occupants out
The fairly strong smell of fresh marijuana isn’t enough to order defendant out of the vehicle, even with nervousness and driving a rental vehicle. Commonwealth v. Locke, 2016 Mass. App. LEXIS 63 (June 7, 2016):
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