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Recent Posts
- 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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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
CO: While trial court erred in considering officers’ subjective intent, there still wasn’t RS
“We conclude that while the trial court erred in considering the officers’ subjective intent in effectuating the seizure, it was nonetheless correct that the officers lacked reasonable and articulable suspicion to detain Brown. Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s order … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Criminal history and normal nervousness not RS
The probation inquiry during a traffic stop lacked reasonable suspicion and was unreasonable. Defendant was always cooperative, and his criminal history and normal nervousness added nothing. “The Government does not argue that Officer Guajardo’s decision to tow Odom’s vehicle without … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Prior knowledge of def was RS here
The officer well knew defendant and his vehicle. “That information, combined with his recognition of Bastin as he drove by him on the highway, was enough reasonable suspicion to justify an investigatory stop, the Government contends. As for the pretext … Continue reading
NY2: Seizure of a shooting victim’s clothing at hospital implicates 4A
The seizure of defendant’s clothing from the hospital where he was taken after being shot was unreasonable. “The defendant had a legitimate expectation of privacy in his clothing, and the fact that the police perceived the defendant as a victim … Continue reading
CA4: If you’re going to call the search “egregious,” at least cite a case
“Dr. Dong next asserts, without citation to case law, that ‘[e]gregious procedural deficiencies in the investigation, prosecution, trial and sentencing’ occurred such that his convictions and sentence must be reversed. Opening Br. 18. He first points to alleged deficiencies in … Continue reading
TN: Smell of drugs during execution of SW permits detaining occupants
Based on the smell of drugs when executing a search warrant, the officers had the authority to detain the occupants. Linsey v. State, 2022 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 79 (Feb. 25, 2022). Defendant’s stop was reasonable. Shots had been reported … Continue reading
OR: Questioning motorist about tattoos unreasonably extended stop
A question to a motorist about tattoos during a stop because they might have been prison tattoos wasn’t shown to be related to officer safety and was thus unreasonable. “Here, the circuitous, propensity-based inquiry about defendant’s incarceration history was predicated … Continue reading
CA9: Interstate truck driver had apparent authority to consent to search of package in truck
An Old Dominion truck driver had apparent authority to open a package consigned to him and his company to haul. He became suspicious it was contraband and called the police. They wouldn’t act without probable cause so the driver took … Continue reading
Above the Law: Broken Tail Lights? You Should Get That Fixed, But Should You Get Pulled Over?
Above the Law: Broken Tail Lights? You Should Get That Fixed, But Should You Get Pulled Over? by Chris Williams (Feb. 22, 2022):
W.D.Pa.: SW for what turned out to be multiunit apts is suppressed, and no GFE
The multi-unit character of the property being searched under a warrant wasn’t immediately apparent to the officers, or so they said. The court doesn’t credit that because they knew defendant was in “apartment 3” on the third floor. Post-search follow-up … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: GFE applies to warrant execution issues
Officers had a search warrant for the premises of a house, and an outbuilding off the curtilage was searched, too. “Defendant next argues that the officers exceeded the scope of the search warrant because the converted shed was outside of … Continue reading
ID: If a motion to suppress is untimely, at least show good cause for the delay
The trial court did not err in denying a motion to suppress as untimely without inquiring into possible good cause or excusable neglect for the delay where the defense offered nothing on that. Defendant stripping down and leaving his clothes … Continue reading
N.D.Ala.: Officer tailing GPS from bank robbery loot had exigency
“Brown first argues that counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to raise three specific arguments in his defense: that the arresting officer violated Brown’s Fourth Amendment rights by (1) arresting Brown outside of the officer’s Birmingham jurisdiction, (2) entering a … Continue reading
D.Conn.: Dropping a bag when stopped, walking away from it, and then denying having it was abandonment
Defendant had a red Nike bag on him when the car was stopped, and he got out of the car and dropped it on the ground and walked away from it. When questioned about the bag, he denied he’d dropped … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Guilty plea with waiver of 4A claim not judicial estoppel to § 1983 claim
Plaintiff’s guilty plea in federal court was a waiver of his Fourth Amendment claims, and that was not judicial estoppel to a § 1983 case over the merits. Moreover, because the independent source doctrine was involved, the Heck bar did … Continue reading
GA: Even if knock-and-talk was valid, expanding entry onto the curtilage wasn’t
The knock-and-talk here was reasonable in its inception, but the officer violated the curtilage by inspecting a car parked there. The state’s argument that reasonable suspicion permitted approaching the car was not raised below so it’s waived. “Furthermore, even if … Continue reading
NY4: State fails to prove independent source for search after unlawful arrest
The search of defendant’s car was the product of an illegal arrest, and the state fails to prove the independent source doctrine applies. Here, it was argued to be a parole search. People v. Smith, 2022 NY Slip Op 00790, … Continue reading