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- W.D.Tex.: What is the duty of the neutral and detached magistrate?
- D.Me.: Yes, more investigation could have been done, but there’s still PC on what there was
- CA3: Brady doesn’t apply to SW materials
- E.D.Mich.: Person a cell phone was given to as gift could consent to search
- CAAF: Information on computer stored in evidence room wasn’t stale
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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
OH11: No RS for frisking a slumbering motorist
Police were called to a man slumped over his steering wheel maybe passed out. They roused him. Defendant’s patdown was not justified by reasonable suspicion. State v. Shoenberger, 2022-Ohio-253, 2022 Ohio App. LEXIS 232 (11th Jan. 31, 2022). Defendant’s roadside … Continue reading
NJ: Race and being ¾ mile from a robbery not RS
Defendants were stopped in a car ¾ of a mile and driving away from the scene of a 7-11 robbery. All the officer knew was there were two black males involved. In their car, there were three black males. That … Continue reading
OH2: Police car blocking def’s car in a parking lot was a seizure without RS
“We conclude that a police officer’s act of positioning the cruiser in a way that made it difficult, albeit not impossible, for Jones to drive away constituted a show of authority sufficient to cause a reasonable person in Jones’ position … Continue reading
MO: Trial court’s credibility findings on search incident of backpack was binding on appeal
The trial court suppressed the search of defendant’s backpack as incident to his arrest. The trial court heard conflicting testimony on whether it was within his reach, and concluded it was not. That’s binding on the standard of review. State … Continue reading
CA1: Def preserved Rodriguez argument without citing it
Defendant preserved his Rodriguez argument by stating that the stop was continued without reasonable suspicion but not citing the case. Nevertheless, he loses on the merits. United States v. Reyes, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 1417 (1st Cir. Jan. 19, 2022). … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Stopping UPS truck for dog sniff of packages wasn’t unreasonable
Of two coconspirators in a package containing drugs, the named sender has standing but the coconspirator does not. Stopping the UPS truck for a dog sniff of the packages did not interfere with any reasonable expectation of privacy. Besides, there … Continue reading
WV: Officer admitted prior testimony was erroneous; not incredible as a matter of law
The officer obtaining the search warrant here was found to have mistakenly testified in federal court that he did not personally present this warrant to the magistrate. Admission of that mistake was credited here that he did present the affidavit. … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Arrest warrant doesn’t require executing officer to check into PC for it
If there is an arrest warrant, the executing officer doesn’t have to look behind it to determine its validity. Other alleged probable cause for defendant’s stop is immaterial. United States v. Cox, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7551 (W.D.Ky. Jan. 14, … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Automobile exception applied to RV with engine not on blocks; was capable of movement
Whether the engine of a mobile home was running or not doesn’t matter. It was capable of movement so the search was valid under the automobile exception. “The fact that the motor home had a bathroom and kitchen and looked … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Admin SDT is not a 4A seizure
The Secretary of Labor’s administrative subpoena duces tecum here did not violate the Fourth Amendment. “A warrant is required only when government officials enter onto a private party’s premises without consent and forcibly take possession of documents.” Walsh v. Int’l … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: BOLO that matched defendant’s car was RS for stop
A BOLO that matched defendant’s car was reasonable suspicion for a stop. United States v. Yanez, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6376 (S.D.Tex. Jan. 12, 2022). Cell phone communication and text messages about drug deals with the defendant gave probable cause … Continue reading
CA10: That officer could have provided false affidavit is not a ‘substantial preliminary showing’ for Franks
“Velarde-Pavia has offered no evidence that Officer Juarez lied in his affidavit. Rather than make the needed ‘substantial preliminary showing,’ Velarde-Pavia only speculates that Officer Juarez could be lying–that is not enough.” As to informant hearsay, the affidavit for the … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: [Gratuitously] asking motorist for consent deviated from the mission of the stop; motion to suppress granted
Asking defendant for consent to search when there were three officers around and then telling the others she declined unreasonably extended the stop even though it was 50 seconds. No decision had been made to issue a ticket or a … Continue reading
NM: Traffic arrest by reserve deputy in violation of statute violates state constitution
Where the legislature requires traffic arrests be made by uniformed, sworn, and salaried officers, arrest by a reserve deputy violates the state constitution. State v. Wright, 2022 N.M. LEXIS 2 (Jan. 10, 2022). “The Court finds that Mr. Hunley was … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: RS parolee is into drugs justifies PO’s cell phone search
State parole officers with reasonable suspicion defendant was involved in drugs could seize and search his cell phone. United States v. Devaughn, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5406 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 11, 2022). There was no reasonable suspicion for a probation search … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Shooting incident 4 days earlier was RS
A shooting incident at a Tucson motel four days earlier led police to stop defendant in a car involved seen on motel video. That was reasonable suspicion. United States v. Castro, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 249438 (D.Ariz. Dec. 13, 2021).* … Continue reading
MA: A computer check during a traffic stop would dispel any RS, and failure to do so was unreasonable
Defendant’s car had an inspection rejection sticker for safety defects, but state law grants a 60 day grace period for correction. A computer check would have answered any questions. “Accordingly, we conclude that whether the troopers’ suspicion was reasonable in … Continue reading