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- OH2: Stop outside the officer’s jurisdiction doesn’t violate 4A
- 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
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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)
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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
MD: RS on totality is way less than preponderance or prima facie case
Proof of the totality of circumstances of reasonable suspicion is less than a preponderance of the evidence or even a prima facie case. It depends a lot on “those who can read between the lines,” the investigating officers. Freeman v. … Continue reading
AR: Adding to PC argument on appeal wasn’t preserved
Defendant’s specific argument on appeal about the lack of probable cause was not presented to the trial court, so it’s not preserved for appeal. In a Franks part of the motion, the affidavit has to be read as a whole, … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Can’t relitigate denial of motion to suppress in motion for new trial
A motion for new trial is not the place to relitigate denial of a motion to suppress. United States v. Mack, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14024 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 16, 2021). There was reasonable suspicion on the totality for defendant’s … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: “Any and all” in a SW is severable to maintain particularity
Catch-all language, like “any and all” in a list of things to be seized, is severable to narrow the warrant. United States v. Qadri, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13975 (N.D. Ga. Jan. 26, 2021). “Based on the totality of the … Continue reading
LA: RS was “close question,” and evidence supports conclusion
The trial court found the reasonable suspicion close, and it concluded there was. “The testimony and evidence support the trial’s court’s finding that Zimmerman had reasonable suspicion of possible criminal activity to extend the stop to allow a canine to … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Vaguely matching description except for race and wearing a hoodie wasn’t RS
“The Court finds that the articulable justification presented for initially stopping Defendant was that he was a black male wearing a black hoodie in the vicinity of Washington Park. Based on the totality of the circumstances, and considering the information … Continue reading
D.Md.: Despite recreational MJ use in state, smell of MJ before that was PC
At the time of the encounter with the Maryland police, the smell of marijuana on the person was probable cause. That changed later, but the search of the person was valid when it happened. Moreover, possession of marijuana is still … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Def failing to immediately stop and drawing officers deep into a parking lot added to RS
While the question is close, “I find that Pappas had reasonable suspicion that Eddards was armed and dangerous. While performing proactive gang enforcement in an area plagued by crimes being committed in rental cars, Pappas and Nahum attempted to pull … Continue reading
MO: Computer check showing LPN expired was RS despite apparent valid sticker
There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop based on a computer check of his LPN which showed it had expired. The sticker, however, showed it was current. The officer could make the stop to check whether it was counterfeit, something … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Calling def’s cell phone from a seized cell phone’s recent call log wasn’t a search
Dialing defendant’s cell phone from the call log of a seized cell phone was not a search. If defendant wanted his number to remain private, he should block the number or turn off the phone. United States v. Katana, 2021 … Continue reading
OH5: If suppression court goes off on an unaddressed issue, the parties get to respond
If the trial court in a suppression hearing goes off in another direction not raised by the parties, the parties get to respond. Here, the state was on notice. State v. Arthur, 2021-Ohio-104, 2021 Ohio App. LEXIS 100 (5th Dist. … Continue reading
CA11: Standing required for 41(g) motion for return of property
The district court did not abuse its discretion in declining equitable jurisdiction under Rule 41(g) for lack of a threshold showing of standing and justiciability. United States v. Stoune, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 1178 (11th Cir. Jan. 15, 2021). The … Continue reading
CA10: 4A imposes no duty for officer to seek out a video to confirm PC officer already has
Before an officer files a criminal complaint, there is no constitutional duty to review potential video of the occurrence. The video here wasn’t quickly accessible to the officer. Here, there was probable cause and this other constitutional claim is not … Continue reading
OR: With recreational MJ, the odor of MJ in a rental car is not RS for trafficking
In a recreational marijuana state, “We are unprepared to say that, as to any person driving a rental car on a public highway in Oregon that is also used by drug traffickers, any odor of marijuana gives rise to reasonable … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: Def’s car that others were known to drive being outside house of another wasn’t reasonable belief he was there
Officers did not have a reasonable belief defendant was on the premises of another just because he was seen there a month earlier and what was somewhat believed to be his car was parked out outside just before the entry. … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: 8A applies to excessive force claims in prison
The Eighth Amendment applies to excessive force claims in prison; the Fourth Amendment to free worlders. Rodriguez v. United States, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4100 (E.D. Cal. Jan. 7, 2021). The court believes the officer over the defendant on whether … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: Address wasn’t required where picture of property was in SW
Defendant’s address wasn’t included in the affidavit for the search warrant, but its picture was and there was no mistake on the place searched. That was sufficient. United States v. Lingo, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3861 (E.D. Tenn. Jan. 8, … Continue reading
D.Del.: Videotaping an otherwise valid prison strip search isn’t a per se 4A violation
“Plaintiff does not allege that the search itself violated his rights but, rather, it is the recording of the search that he finds objectionable.” “[U]sing a camera to record a strip search in a prison does not, by itself, amount … Continue reading