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- RawStory Opinion: Trump just declared these parts of America are outside the Constitution (within 100 miles of any border)
- CA1: SW for iPhone 6S didn’t permit search of iPhone 13 despite same phone number
- CA7: It wasn’t a 4A violation to place a pole camera to look over def’s fence he built knowing he was under surveillance
- NM: Conflict of laws: NM exclusionary rule applies to TX search
- D.N.M.: Obtaining def’s juvenile records by subpoena is not a “search”; no REP
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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.N.J.: No standing in car GPS def sometimes rode in
Defendant failed to show standing to challenge seizure of the GPS in vehicles he sometimes was a passenger in. United States v. Mims, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72333 (D.N.J. Apr. 20, 2022). There was reasonable suspicion to extend this stop … Continue reading
CA11: 4A violation isn’t actual innocence claim for habeas
An alleged Fourth Amendment violation is not an actual innocence claim for habeas. “Fourth, he argues that he is actually innocent given that he was denied his right to counsel when investigators continued to interrogate him, despite his unequivocal request … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Conduct that is objectively innocent, too, must have something suggesting criminality to be RS
Conduct that is objectively innocent, too, must have something suggesting criminality to be reasonable suspicion. United States v. Hamilton, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71876 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 19, 2022)*:
E.D.Va.: Guest of renter of hotel room had standing
A guest in a hotel room had standing because the renter permitted him to stay there. As for the merits of the search, inevitable discovery applies. United States v. Stein, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71316 (E.D.Va. Apr. 18, 2022). Officers … Continue reading
D.Me.: Search under state bail condition was with RS and alternative ground
Defendant was on a state bail condition that authorized warrantless searches. In a traffic stop, the officer had at least reasonable suspicion of drug activity in the vehicle. The search was reasonable under both. As to the bail condition, there … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Community caretaking seizure of car off private property unreasonable
The impoundment of the car defendant was driving (although not his, he has standing) was unjustified. It was on private property and not impeding any traffic. The community caretaking function did not justify it. There was no standardized impoundment policy, … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: No blanket rule passengers can be asked pedigree questions during traffic stop
There is no blanket rule that passengers in a traffic stop can be asked their pedigree information. The cases the government rely on are pre-Rodriguez and of no real value. Here, those questions extended the stop. United States v. Wright, … Continue reading
Cal.1: Being “under investigation” for something else and then being in a “high crime area” is not RS
Being “under investigation” for some crime and then being seen in a “high crime area” is not reasonable suspicion. “And ‘a person’s Fourth Amendment rights cannot be lessened simply because he or she is “under investigation” by the police. Just … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Empty sandwich bag in car not subject to plain view; incriminating nature not immediately apparent
The government failed to establish reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop on an anonymous tip where nothing of substance was furnished contrary to Navarette. Moreover, it wasn’t immediately apparent an empty sandwich bag in the car was incriminating for plain view. … Continue reading
OR: A metal box next to def when stopped was subject to search incident here
Even under Oregon’s restrictive search incident doctrine, the search of a metal box next to defendant was reasonable. She was suspected of stealing from a Salvation Army donations trailer when she was stopped. Practically anything in her vehicle looked like … Continue reading
CA3: Police created exigency during stop not justification to extend it
Police can detour from the mission of a traffic stop to investigate other crimes just because the stop is in a high crime area, but they can’t use that to create exigency that doesn’t exist as to this defendant. United … Continue reading
CA10: Def’s actions were completely consistent with innocence and did not add up to RS
The officer did not have reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop or its continuation. Defendant’s actions were consistent with somebody who had nothing to hide, and the district court’s findings got no presumption of correctness. Denial of the suppression motion reversed. … Continue reading
Officers engage in small talk to see if RS develops
“The Court finds this stop was constitutional. There was reasonable suspicion that justified the prolonged detention. The arresting officer, Texas Department of Public Safety State Trooper John Loftin, developed reasonable suspicion during the course of the stop. The driver of … Continue reading
D.S.D.: Def’s delay on his own paperwork extended the stop
The stop was reasonably extended by the passenger’s not providing paperwork timely and in giving apparently false information. United States v. Wise, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65558 (D.S.D. Apr. 8, 2022).* There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop. “The totality … Continue reading
CA4: The fact a traffic stop could have been more efficient doesn’t mean it was otherwise unreasonable
“In sum, though the stop could have been shorter (and begun more efficiently), it wasn’t impermissibly prolonged. Marcel and Haigler’s actions were reasonably related to investigating an expired license plate. And this basis for the stop quickly mushroomed into other … Continue reading
D.D.C.: SW not needed to search seized oligarch’s yacht in foreign port
A warrant for search of a Russian oligarch’s seized yacht under sanctions for the Ukraine invasion is denied as probably unnecessary. “The Fourth Amendment does not apply to the search and seizure of property owned by a nonresident alien located … Continue reading
N.D.Okla.: Officer’s testimony of traffic offense wasn’t believed based on his words on video
“Considering the totality of the circumstances, the Court finds that Phillips’ testimony that he observed a lane violation prior to initiating a traffic stop is not credible. The only evidence tending to support the commission of a traffic violation is … Continue reading
MA: Dog alert to buttocks PC for strip search
After witnessing suspicious movement, and observing white powder on the vehicle dashboard where defendant had been sitting, police had probable cause to arrest defendant on drug charges and consequently were justified in conducting a search of the defendant incident to … Continue reading
CA3: Def’s flight before the “Rodriguez moment” was on him
“We have ‘recognized the possibility that the Rodriguez moment occurs when an officer no longer pursues the tasks tied to the traffic stop even though he reasonably could have continued with those tasks.’ Garner, 961 F.3d at 270 (citing Green, … Continue reading