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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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--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.S.D.: Danger not defused, so officer could conduct frisk; it’s “akin to the doctrine of a ‘protective sweep'”
I’ve analogized a frisk of a car authorized under Long as a ‘protective sweep,’ which is usually of a dwelling. Here, a court does too: Officers responded to a use of force report that had been not completely defused. When … Continue reading
PA: Request for ID of two men sitting at a vacant building didn’t rise to a detention
Two men sitting at a vacant building in the daytime, but in an area known for burglaries, could be asked for identification and it written down. It was a mere encounter and not a detention. One defendant’s continued furtive conduct … Continue reading
GA: Deliberately delaying the computer check during a traffic stop unreasonably extended it
The officer wrote a traffic ticket and then decided to run a computer check, and that unnecessarily prolonged the stop, making it unreasonable. State v. Allen, 2014 Ga. App. LEXIS 538 (July 16, 2014). Monitoring a controlled buy with the … Continue reading
VI: The question is not whether the driver is guilty of a traffic offense, just whether there is RS
The officer stopped defendant because he swerved, and defendant claimed it was because he was avoiding a pedestrian. The government isn’t required to prove that it was true or not; the question is reasonable suspicion of bad driving, and it … Continue reading
AZ: Open door in area known for string of burglaries justified entry
Officers came to defendant’s house looking for somebody else as a suspect because of a significant number of home burglaries in the area. They found a gate, a 120′ driveway, and opened the gate. About 15′ in they noticed that … Continue reading
WI: Mistake of law on how many taillights have to work led to suppression
One unlit bulb in a taillight system that was otherwise visible 500′ was unreasonable. This is a mistake of law. State v. Brown, 2014 WI 69, 2014 Wisc. LEXIS 483 (July 16, 2014). Driving 25 then 20 in a 50 … Continue reading
OH9: Mistake of law on where car needed to stop justified suppressing the stop
Officer’s mistake of law that a driver had to stop only at a stop line and not before made the stop unreasonable. State v. Drushal, 2014-Ohio-3088, 2014 Ohio App. LEXIS 3020 (9th Dist. July 14, 2014).* [Will Heien v. North … Continue reading
GA: Officer’s ignoring dispatch that DL and paperwork were fine unreasonably extended stop
Defendant was stopped, acted somewhat nervous, and the officer called in the license check, which was complete in 2½ minutes. He ignored dispatch calling him back to prolong the stop, and that made the stop unreasonable because, since defendant’s paperwork … Continue reading
CA11: Tasering armed man out of a tree where he broke his back entitled to QI
Plaintiff was drunk in a tree with a gun after an altercation at a party. The police came and he refused to some down. He was Tasered twice, the second time falling headfirst eight feet and becoming a paraplegic. The … Continue reading
VI: Alleged “plain view” of drugs inadequate without a showing that it was “immediately apparent” drugs were there
Defendant had an accident and was being detained because he appeared under the influence. His vehicle was searched, and a plastic bag inside a plastic bag was seen. The prosecution having produced no evidence that the officer had reason to … Continue reading
MA: Arrest on outstanding warrants doesn’t justify a search incident
Arrest on outstanding warrants for drugs and violation of a protective order does not give officers the authority to conduct a search incident. Commonwealth v. White, 469 Mass. 96, 12 N.E.3d 348 (2014). Pro se plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment claims were … Continue reading
WA: Where justified frisk produced a small box that couldn’t have contained a weapon, opening box unreasonable
The frisk of defendant was justified because he’d lied about having a gun on him once before. When the frisk produced a small box that could not have possibly contained a weapon, the search of the box was unjustified. State … Continue reading
DC: No bright line rule on how long a detention for a show up can go before it becomes unreasonable; here, an hour was unreasonable
There is no bright line rule on how long a detention for a show up can go before it becomes unreasonable. SCOTUS has said that the least intrusive means should be followed. Here, it was over an hour and it … Continue reading
CA10: Heck and SoL barred claim that 2007 arrest undermined conviction
Plaintiff sued over his 2007 arrest to undermine his murder conviction. “As the district court correctly held, Mr. Williams’s complaint implicates the validity of his conviction and sentence and therefore is barred under Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994). … Continue reading
OH5: Meth lab was in a building not on the curtilage
The meth lab on defendant’s property was not on the curtilage. It was a separate building away from the house. State v. Schorr, 2014-Ohio-2992, 2014 Ohio App. LEXIS 2933 (5th Dist. July 2, 2014).* The officer here was justified in … Continue reading
D.Kan.: RS on totality here was weak and motion to suppress granted
“Although a close call, the Court concludes that the trooper did not have reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot and had no right to detain Medina for further investigation. Though reasonable suspicion is not meant to be an onerous … Continue reading
New Law Review Article: Privacy Protests: Surveillance Evasion and Fourth Amendment Reasonable Suspicion
Privacy Protests: Surveillance Evasion and Fourth Amendment Reasonable Suspicion, Elizabeth E. Joh, 55 Ariz. L. Rev. 997 (2014). Abstract:
N.D.Ga., S.D.Tex. & DE: Waiving a motion to suppress for strategic reasons was valid
Not filing a suppression motion was a valid strategic choice discussed on the record at the time it was waived with the USMJ. United States v. Latimore, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91777 (N.D. Ga. May 29, 2014); United States v. … Continue reading