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- 404 Media: Flock: LAPD Regularly Pulled Over Innocent People Because License Plate Readers Flagged Their Cars As Stolen
- 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
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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)
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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
SC: Walking near a place being searched isn’t RS; def not connected to property
A no-knock warrant was executed at a house, and defendant walked along the periphery of the property. The police stopped and frisked him finding drugs. There was no reasonable suspicion, even when he acted nervous and evasive after confronted. He … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Being a mere drug handler in a drug house doesn’t give standing
Defendant lacked standing in the place searched because he lived elsewhere, and he was there helping run drugs through the house. United States v. Espindola-Pineda, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24489 (E.D.N.C. Feb. 3, 2016), adopted 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24488 … Continue reading
OH3: Particularity challenge waived by not presenting it to suppression court
The officer’s smelling marijuana outside defendant’s residence was probable cause to corroborate the story that defendant had a grow going on. A particularity challenge was waived by not presenting it to the trial court at the suppression hearing. State v. … Continue reading
ID: Video of stop belied officer’s claim of nervousness; refusal of consent not a factor in RS
“The factors known to the officer were Neal’s nervousness, attire, and the time of day, and after substantial questioning, Neal’s refusal to consent to a search of his automobile. As noted above, none of these factors alone bears more than … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Losing one’s cell phone at the scene of the crime is a loss of any reasonable expectation of privacy in it
A defendant who loses his cell phone at the scene of a crime has abandoned it by not safeguarding his privacy. This was 2009, and, besides, Riley doesn’t apply to abandoned phones. United States v. Quashie, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
IA: 911 hang up call justified a police walk through even though occupants said everything was fine
Police received a 911 hang up call, and an officer was dispatched. Outside the home, the smell of burning marijuana was strong. The officer came to the door, was assured everything was alright, but he said he had to check … Continue reading
D.Minn.: When lack of PC for SW is raised, this court looks to whether there was enough for reliance on SW to be objectively reasonable
Defendant argued lack of probable cause for search warrants for two vehicles and a computer, so the court goes first to good faith and analyzes the probable cause through that lens finding that reliance on the warrants with this much … Continue reading
W.D.La.: No reasonable expectation of privacy in a stolen car
“Barnes, as the possessor of a stolen vehicle, had no legitimate expectation of privacy in the vehicle. His challenge to the search fails on this ground alone. [¶] In addition, it should be noted that, even if Barnes did have … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Def was told he wasn’t under arrest but he could have been; search incident valid
Defendant was stopped for a traffic offense, and he was told he was being placed in handcuffs because the officer was unaware of who he was and that that did not mean he was going to jail. A patdown produced … Continue reading
LA4: Custodial arrest for pedestrian offense was unreasonable and violation of statute
The state’s petition for a supervisory writ is denied. Defendant was stopped for a pedestrian offense, and arresting him was unreasonable and a violation of statute. He should have been cited, and the trial court’s suppression order was correct. State … Continue reading
DC: Sitting in a car looking in your lap isn’t reasonable suspicion of anything
Officers approached defendant sitting in his Jeep at 14th & U in D.C., looking down into his lap. It turned out he was looking at his phone. The police order to get out of the car was without reasonable suspicion … Continue reading
CA7: Looking at a cell phone while driving is not RS of texting while driving; consent suppressed
Indiana makes it an offense to text message and email while driving, but it prohibits no other phone activity such as searching for music, audio books, looking at videos. Studies show that a person looking at his phone is far … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: “Cops” video of def’s arrest shows officer not credible; frisk invalid
In a case demonstrating how easy it is for a police officer to lie about reasonable suspicion, the officer’s testimony of reasonable suspicion for defendant’s frisk is completely belied by a “Cops” video. On the totality, there was no reasonable … Continue reading
TN: Citizen informant’s call describing vehicle and LPN involved in apparent drug deal was RS
Citizen informant’s call that a neighbor was dealing drugs out of his house and describing the comings and goings and the LPN and description of the last car was reasonable suspicion for that car’s stop. State v. Foster, 2016 Tenn. … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: No reasonable expectation of privacy in jail calls
Defendant’s motion to quash subpoenas for his jail telephone calls is denied. He was on notice by the inmate handbook and notices by the phone and during the calls, sometimes twice, that the calls would be recorded. United States v. … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: 30 minute delay of stop for drug dog unreasonable
The stop was admittedly justified for a traffic offense, but the officer intentionally delayed ten minutes the writing of the traffic ticket, apparently to give more time for the drug dog to arrive. The dog arrived over thirty minutes into … Continue reading