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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
OR: Smell of MJ around three men was RS as to all
Smell of marijuana around three men was reasonable suspicion as to all. “Defendant argues that, because Ploghoft only detected the odor of marijuana in the vicinity of the men, and could not trace it to defendant in particular, that was … Continue reading
FL: Color discrepancy in DMV record not enough for a stop
A color discrepancy from DMV on a vehicle alone is not a basis for a stop. Here, the car was bright green and DMV showed it to be blue. That’s not enough. State v. Van Teamer, 151 So. 3d 421 … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Question is PC for a stop, not whether the defendant actually violated the law
The stop was valid. “Whether Flores actually violated the law is immaterial. The question is only whether Deputy Broce had probable cause to suspect that Flores was committing a traffic violation.” The officer could ask defendant to produce what created … Continue reading
NC: De minimus rule for traffic stops doesn’t apply when they have to wait for the drug dog
Once the basis for the traffic stop was completed, the stop had to end. Defendant was asked for consent and refused, and the officer told him he was staying for a drug dog to arrive. The state argued for the … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: No standing to contest seizure of guns left at a pawn shop
Defendant had no standing to contest law enforcement’s seizure of guns he pawned at a pawn shop. United States v. Sanders, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88788 (E.D. Tenn. May 19, 2014).* The officer had reasonable suspicion defendant was driving under … Continue reading
D.N.H.: Bail conditions can permit otherwise illegal searches of the person; same as parole search
Officers had reasonable suspicion to conduct a patdown of the defendant. Even if they didn’t, a bail condition of his would have permitted it. United States v. Drane, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88729 (D. N.H. June 30, 2014):
OH10: Suppression motion arguing stop wasn’t valid doesn’t include whether frisk was reasonable; waived on appeal
The suppression argument that the stop was invalid doesn’t raise the issue of whether the frisk of defendant’s person was reasonable. Therefore, the frisk issue isn’t before the appeals court. Defendant even objected to testimony about the frisk. [¶ 10] … Continue reading
WA: State can comment at trial on refusal to take FST
Because there is no constitutional right to refuse an FST, the state can comment on it at trial. State v. Mecham, 2014 Wash. App. LEXIS 1541 (June 23, 2014): ¶39 Mecham did not have a constitutional right to refuse consent … Continue reading
GA: Defendant’s effort to distance himself from drugs led to no standing
Defendant’s effort to distance himself from drugs led to no standing. “Barlow testified that only his mother, stepfather, and brother lived at the Sherbrooke Way residence, and he denied currently living at the residence or having a bedroom there. Barlow … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: “Cell phones and firearms are generally considered the ‘tools of the trade’ of drug traffickers”
“Cell phones and firearms are generally considered the ‘tools of the trade’ of drug traffickers, which the involved detectives fully understood and conveyed to the magistrate judge. … United States v. Jones, Cr. 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 54575 (E.D. Pa. … Continue reading
Cato: Police Ignorance of the Law Is No Excuse (re: Heien v. North Carolina)
Cato: Police Ignorance of the Law Is No Excuse (re: Hein v. North Carolina) by Ilya Shapiro: To execute any search or seizure, a police officer must reasonably suspect that a crime has been or is being committed based on … Continue reading
W.D.Wis.: Parole absconder hiding in hotel room of another had no standing
Defendant was a guest of a guest in a hotel room, and he was an absconder from supervision and had committed a new crime and was on the run. The question of guest standing is discussed at length, and there’s … Continue reading
KY: State gets to argue standing on appeal even though it didn’t raise it below
Although the state didn’t raise standing below, it gets to based on the theory of “affirming on any ground shown by the record.” The record here showed no standing in the defendant’s grandfather’s house where he was running a meth … Continue reading
OH9: Officer could inquire of car that obviously did not belong in the driveway where it was seen
An officer on patrol saw a car parked in a driveway that he knew didn’t belong. He ran the LPN and it was not registered to the owner, so he approached the driver and saw him drinking behind the wheel. … Continue reading
OH12: RS for DUI doesn’t support calling drug dog; new RS needed for that
Defendant was pulled over for having no rear bumper. Reasonable suspicion developed for DUI based on the smell of alcohol, but when the officer called for a drug dog, he needed separate reasonable suspicion for that. The first detention and … Continue reading
CA5: Arrest warrant authorized entry to arrest in defendant’s home
Defendant’s Franks challenge fails because the information omitted isn’t material at all to the outcome. Officers used an arrest warrant to gain entry and they reasonably believed she was there. After all, she answered the door. A protective sweep doesn’t … Continue reading