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- 404 Media: Flock: LAPD Regularly Pulled Over Innocent People Because License Plate Readers Flagged Their Cars As Stolen
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- 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)
--Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (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
IN: Refusal to stop for “Hey, I need to talk to you,” didn’t justify an arrest
Refusal to stop for “Hey, I need to talk to you,” didn’t justify an arrest in Indiana. It wasn’t a stop to flee from. Miller v. State, 2016 Ind. App. LEXIS 33 (Feb. 9, 2016). Defendant’s stop for criminal trespass … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Looking in def’s mouth for drugs and pocket for a key exceeded the scope of a Terry frisk
The officer had three traffic offenses to stop defendant for, and circumstances gave reasonable suspicion of drug activity too. “While Captain Pendergrass had reasonable suspicion to perform a pat down frisk for weapons on Defendant based on the presence of … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: “All record” warrant for patient records had a sufficient showing, and it was not overbroad
An “all record” warrant for patient records had a sufficient showing, and it was not overbroad. “The Government is not required to have evidence relating to each and every patient in order to justify the seizure of all patient files.” … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: “I know what you’re looking for, and all I have is a little weed” is reasonable suspicion
Officers in a “semi-marked vehicle” saw defendant on a street corner, and pulled up and stopped and asked him in a conversational tone what he was doing. “Defendant responded that he had just left the liquor store, that he already … Continue reading
CA3: Throwing three bags over a fence and walking away was an abandonment
Police wanted to talk to defendant in a child pornography investigation, and they learned he was at a storage unit he rented. When defendant saw the police, he threw three bags (“tote bag, a zippered duffel bag, and a wheeled … Continue reading
IN: Having a person with the same name as person of interest is RS in itself to at least find out whether he’s the same guy
Willie Moore was on a trespass list at an apartment complex. The officer had a Willie Moore in front of him. That was reasonable suspicion to at least talk with him without knowing it was the same Willie Moore to … Continue reading
CA7: No REP from being videoed by CI one lets in for a drug deal
A video-wired CI came into defendant’s apartment to record him doing a drug deal, and a SW issued based on the recording. Defendant challenged the entry and the recording but not the SW. “Thompson has never challenged the search warrant … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Since possession of neither shotgun nor hypodermic needle are crimes, stop invalid
Police received a call about a man passed out in a Lexus in a parking lot with a hypodermic needle sticking in his arm and a shotgun next to him. When they got there, defendant was out of the car, … Continue reading
SC: CoA missapplied std of review by reweighing facts; warns that “nervousness” isn’t a blank check
The court of appeals misapplied the standard of review by reweighing the facts. The court can’t help, however, in talking about nervousness as an “omnipresent” factor in reasonable suspicion. State v. Moore, 2016 S.C. LEXIS 5 (Jan. 27, 2016), rev’g … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Defendant running off into the desert while handcuffed was abandonment of the bag he had at his feet
Defendant “abandoned his reasonable expectation of privacy when he ran and left the satchel unattended in the desert. The bag was placed next to him by Agent Fletcher. Although it may have been difficult for the defendant to retrieve the … Continue reading
CA5 & AR: 34+ minute waits for drug dog without reasonable suspicion on totality
Defendant’s 40 minute detention waiting for a drug dog was without reasonable suspicion. None of the individual factors of reasonable suspicion relied upon by the government was reasonable suspicion in itself and even not on the totality. Oklahoma plates in … Continue reading
D.Vt.: Smell of burnt marijuana reasonable suspicion to continue stop
“Based on the totality of the circumstances, Trooper Steeves had a reasonable, articulable suspicion that someone in the vehicle had recently smoked marijuana and that Defendant, as the vehicle’s sole occupant, was the likely source of both the odor and … Continue reading
FL4: Handcuffing here was unjustified even by officer safety; no RS
There was an abandoned vehicle, and defendant was in the vicinity, standing in the road talking to a local resident, out of breath and sweating. The resident didn’t know him. Things didn’t add up to the officer, so he called … Continue reading
NC: RS came from hand-to-hand transaction observed by one of officer’s CIs
The officer had reasonable suspicion to stop defendant after an apparent hand-to-hand transaction where the officer recognized him as one of his former CIs who bought drugs for him. State v. Travis, 2016 N.C. App. LEXIS 105 (Jan. 19, 2016). … Continue reading
CA10: Def consented to a car search, and he took up offer to sit in patrol car; that with passenger’s suspicious conduct and high crime area justified frisk finding gun
Defendant consented to a search of his car during a traffic stop, and defendant took a deputy up on an offer to sit inside the patrol vehicle during the search. That led to a frisk because the officer would have … Continue reading
FL3: Taking a dog’s dead body to a vet for disposal is an abandonment
Defendant took an injured puppy to a veterinarian for treatment, and then he took it home. Later, the animal died, and he took it back to the vet for a group cremation of the remains. The vet did a necropsy … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Search of house of person on supervised release could forcibly go into a locked safe
Defendant was on federal post-conviction supervised release, and his USPO received notification that defendant had a law enforcement contact for possession of stolen property. Defendant also called to inform him of the contact. A cell phone at the scene of … Continue reading
D.Minn.: RS and PC as to a car doesn’t require knowing the name of driver
Reasonable suspicion that a vehicle was involved in a crime didn’t require that officers have knowledge of who the driver was. Here, the RS ripened to PC so the length of the stop didn’t matter. The car search was justified … Continue reading
KY: Seizure of def’s gun from console to run serial number when def doing nothing wrong was unreasonable detention, here leading to arrest for disorderly conduct
Defendant was stopped at a traffic safety checkpoint with his wife and two year old son in the car. His paperwork was in order and the officer handed it back, but then the officer noticed defendant’s handgun on the console. … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Two people in a knife fight, but only one with knife, didn’t mean both couldn’t be handcuffed to sort it out
Officers responding to a knife fight outside an apartment in the rain at night could handcuff both men. Just because one had a knife didn’t mean he was the only aggressor. The officers could handcuff both to just maintain the … Continue reading