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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
OH10: Defendant passed out behind the wheel wasn’t stopped since he didn’t know it
“As the officers approached appellant’s car, appellant was passed out and slumped over the driver’s seat. Because appellant was not capable of deciding whether he was free to leave, the officers’ approach to his car cannot be considered a restraint … Continue reading
SCOTUS grants cert. on dog sniff after stop should be complete; the Eighth Circuit’s de minimus rule
Rodriguez v. United States, 13-9972, cert. granted October 2, 2014 (ScotusBlog). Question presented: This Court has held that, during an otherwise lawful traffic stop, asking a driver to exit a vehicle, conducting a drug sniff with a trained canine, or … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Apartment was searched with a warrant; def’s car down street was searched under automobile exception
Officers had probable cause to search defendant’s car for drugs under the automobile exception. They had a search warrant for his apartment but it didn’t include the car which was parked down the street. They had, however, plenty of information … Continue reading
WaPo: A few thoughts on Heien v. North Carolina
WaPo: A few thoughts on Heien v. North Carolina by Orin Kerr: The first argued case in the new Supreme Court term will be Heien v. North Carolina, a Fourth Amendment case about whether a reasonable mistake of law can … Continue reading
OH9: Officers walking up on both sides of a parked vehicle wasn’t a “stop”
Two officers walked up on an already parked vehicle, one on each side. The officer testified that he’d be “pretty upset” if the defendant drove off, but he was actually free to leave. Therefore, it was not a stop, and … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: Meth torch on front seat added to RS to prolong stop
A torch commonly used by methamphetamine users on the front seat next to the defendant and other things developed during questioning justified prolonging the stop. Also, defendant had a Canadian DL and it couldn’t be accessed through NCIC, and a … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Dirty license plate justified stop even though it was called in during stop
Defendant’s stop for having a dirty obscured license plate was justified even though the officer was able to call it in when parked right behind him. The butt of a shotgun was visible in the vehicle and defendant was a … Continue reading
OH12: Putting somebody in the back of a police car and Mirandizing them isn’t automatically an arrest
Putting somebody in the back of a police car and Mirandizing them isn’t automatically an arrest. State v. Babineau, 2014-Ohio-3999, 2014 Ohio App. LEXIS 3902 (12th Dist. September 15, 2014) A jury’s verdict of $250 for a stop for touching … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Failure to promptly answer PO’s knock at door was RS for an entry, given drug history
Defendant’s failure to answer his door promptly was reasonable cause for a warrantless parole search entry because, given defendant’s drug history, it was reasonable to believe he was destroying drugs. United States v. Sandlain, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129135 (E.D. … Continue reading
ID: Crosswalk sting led to valid stop
A crosswalk sting [seeing if motorists would stop for pedestrians] led to defendant’s stop and he was under the influence. The stop was valid. State v. Haugland, 2014 Ida. App. LEXIS 94 (September 8, 2014).* A traffic stop can be … Continue reading
OH9: Excessive nervousness and sweating when asked about gun was RS
When defendant was asked about whether he was armed, he became excessively nervous and started sweating. This was reasonable suspicion to the officer. During the patdown, the rock of crack was immediately apparent to the officer. State v. Mathis, 2014-Ohio-3803, … Continue reading
MT: Talking control of DL is a seizure when they are carried to the patrol car
The officer’s taking control of defendant’s and the passenger’s driver’s license was a seizure of them when he took the DLs back to the patrol car to run them. They were not free to leave. State v. Strom, 2014 MT … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Trace evidence on a firearm justified DNA sample from defendant
A search warrant was properly issued for defendant’s DNA to attempt to link him to firearms found in the take down of a heroin operation. There was probable cause for the warrant and trace evidence was found. In any event, … Continue reading
OH2: Failure to mention an expired CCW permit justified search [?]
The fact defendant was known to have an expired concealed carry permit was reason enough to detain him when he failed to tell the officer he had a CCW permit. [If it’s expired, then he doesn’t have one?] State v. … Continue reading
ID: Any objective basis for stop controls despite subjective intent
The objective basis for the stop controls, no matter what the officer’s subjective intent. The state constitutional argument is deemed abandoned for not properly arguing it. State v. Spies, 2014 Ida. App. LEXIS 89 (August 22, 2014):