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- WaPo: Americans have turned against police cameras that track license plates, new survey shows
- 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
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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)
--Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
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Section 1983 Blog -
"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
CA7 (en banc): Questions about travel plans during traffic stop not unreasonable
Resolving an apparent conflict between Rodriguez and pre-Rodriguez case law, the officer’s normal inquiries here about defendant’s travel plans were legitimate and produced answers that he could legitimately doubt. Defendant volunteered seven states other than where the stop occurred, and … Continue reading
KY: Seeking consent to search car by threatening to use drug dog unreasonably extended stop
Defendant was stopped for a traffic offense, but the officer readily abandoned it by seeking consent and “repeatedly threatened the use of a dog sniff” if he didn’t. Commonwealth v. Conner, 2021 Ky. LEXIS 419 (Dec. 16, 2021):
CA4: When POs knocked for a probation visit, sounds from inside gave RS for probation search
“Wimer contends that the probation officers who visited his home lacked reasonable suspicion to search his person. We find that, based on the totality of the circumstances, the officers had reasonable suspicion to search him. At the outset of the … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Order for palmprints from indicted def requires RS
The government sought palmprints from this indicted defendant to compare to palmprints on boxes that were recovered in an investigation. The court concludes under Davis v. Mississippi (1969) and Hayes v. Florida (1985) that the standard is reasonable suspicion to … Continue reading
CA5: There was PC for defendant’s arrest; a typo in when the SW was served doesn’t make a § 1983 claim
Plaintiff “Xie worked as a professor and researcher at MDA for several years.” MDA believed he computer manipulated a document submitted to the state for expense reimbursement and opened an investigation. That led to search warrants for his electronics. There … Continue reading
CA6: Officer routinely asking “about drugs, weapons, and dead bodies” during traffic stops doesn’t unreasonably extend them
Officer “Mathieson testified that it is his habit to ask about drugs, weapons, and dead bodies during traffic stops. In any event, police officers are permitted to stop a vehicle for a traffic violation and look for evidence of a … Continue reading
OH2: Citizen informant provided RS
Officers received a disorderly conduct call at a fitness center. When officers arrived, defendant was pointed out, and the officers detained him. They hadn’t seen anything illegal at that point, but the employee’s call as a citizen informant was enough … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Stop was completely lacking in RS
This black defendant’s stop six minutes after a shooting call in a heavily black neighborhood (2,000 within a half mile radius) was completely lacking in reasonable suspicion. The court goes on for many pages about the government’s proffered reasonable suspicion … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: For § 1988 fee shifting, SCOTUS expert fees not awarded, only local rate
The fact expert Fourth Amendment counsel would have charged the client $1,000-1,800 before SCOTUS isn’t binding on the district court for fee shifting. The local rate is what’s reasonable. Agudath Israel of America v. Hochul, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 233088 … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: RS from various admissions, and wearing a t-shirt with Pablo Escobar on it
Reasonable suspicion here from, inter alia, conflicting travel plans, admitting heading to South Carolina for further instructions from an unknown person [dumb], and having on a t-shirt with Pablo Escobar on it. United States v. Lopez, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: There was RS for defendant’s 1989 detention where he’s now indicted for murder related to it
Defendant is recently charged with a murder in aid of a drug transaction from 1989. The officers had reasonable suspicion for the encounter. United States v. Merced, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 229659 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 30, 2021)*:
N.D.Tex.: DEA makes traffic stops
The DEA had reasonable suspicion based on collective knowledge to believe a traffic offense occurred to stop defendant’s car. United States v. Camacho, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 229674 (N.D.Tex. Nov. 30, 2021). Defendant challenged the search warrant for his blood … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Officer doesn’t have to defer to mere chance motorist has CCL before seizing firearm in car
When a firearm was seen in defendant’s car, the officer did not have to even consider whether he was had a concealed carry license to seize it. Ferguson v. United States, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 229451 (N.D.Ohio Dec. 1, 2021); … Continue reading
WA: No REP in text message exchange
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in text messages exchanged with another, even under the state’s more protective constitution of “private affairs.” State v. Pouncy, 2021 Wash. App. LEXIS 2811 (Nov. 30, 2021) (unpublished).* The reasonableness of a traffic … Continue reading
Yale L.J.: “The Ostensible (and, at Times, Actual) Virtue of Deference” to police expertise
Anthony O’Rourke, The Ostensible (and, at Times, Actual) Virtue of Deference, Yale L. Journal (Nov. 30, 2021), at note 36:
PA: Sometimes a police-citizen encounter is “a legal fiction” in an “Alice in Wonderland scenario,” like here, but they’re bound by it
The officers’ seeing the outline of a gun on defendant’s person as they drove by justified their turning around and encountering him. Under existing law, “a legal fiction” in an “Alice in Wonderland scenario” the court is bound by, defendant … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Jardines does not prohibit a knock-and-talk
Jardines does not prohibit a knock-and-talk as long as the officers enter via the normal path. United States v. Hartford, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 226452 (D.Neb. Nov. 24, 2021). A protective sweep of defendant’s car was reasonable, despite his being … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: Syringe in back pocket was in plain view
The court finds the syringe in defendant’s back pocket was in plain view. United States v. Riggins, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 224594 (N.D.Tex. Nov. 22, 2021).* Defendant’s stop wasn’t unreasonably prolonged, so the dash and bodycam videos are not suppressed. … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y. Bankr.: Law firm in bankruptcy from missing trust account money gets a hearing on return of items seized under SW of the local DA
This is a civil contempt of bankruptcy court. The debtor is a law firm that declared bankruptcy because $8 million in trust account funds are missing. The DA executed a search warrant on the law firm records. The debtor wants … Continue reading
D.Mass.: SW for premises included def’s separate locked bedroom
The search warrant for the premises also permitted a search of defendant’s locked separate bedroom only accessible from the common area. United States v. Cecchetelli, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 224649 (D.Mass. Nov. 22, 2021). A host of things added up … Continue reading