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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
E.D.Ky.: Continuation stop was supported by RS based on routine questions and observations
“The evidence in this case supports the conclusion that the length of the stop was supported by reasonable suspicion, and the encounter was reasonably related in scope to the purpose of the stop. Trooper Vanhoose testified that after he stopped … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: RS not required to approach a person to talk to him
“Williams first argues that the police officers violated the Fourth Amendment by approaching him without reasonable suspicion. R. 33 at 17. But reasonable suspicion is only required when a suspect has been seized. United States v. Douglass, 467 F.3d 621, … Continue reading
NC: Mere visitor on the premises shouldn’t have been searched without articulatable RS
Defendant was a visitor on the premises when a search warrant was executed. A full search of his person was unreasonable because there were no facts shown justifying a belief he was armed or dangerous. The dissents view would hollow … Continue reading
FL1: ‘conduct does not need to be illegal (or acted upon if so) to be suspicious’ on the totality
“In fact, ‘conduct does not need to be illegal (or acted upon if so) to be suspicious.’ Weakley v. State, 273 So. 3d 283, 286 (Fla. 1st DCA 2019) (observing that in District of Columbia v. Wesby, 138 S. Ct. … Continue reading
CA9: The fact CBP had RS doesn’t mean it’s required for a border dog sniff
“The fact that Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers had reasonable suspicion cannot serve to heighten the standard attached to the border search.” The use of a drug dog at the border doesn’t require reasonable suspicion. United States v. Meraz-Campos, … Continue reading
IL: Conversation with passenger while waiting for transport for arrested driver didn’t extend the stop
Defendant was a passenger in a car stopped for a seat belt violation. The driver had no DL and he was handcuffed. While waiting for transport of the driver, the arresting officer engaged him in conversation. This was reasonable and … Continue reading
OH12: RS for stop after drugs found in 70 other traffic stops leaving suspected drug house
Suppose just for the sake of argument a law enforcement officer conducts 70 potentially legal stops of cars leaving a drug house but then finds drugs in the car. Assume further there was no reasonable suspicion for a detention or … Continue reading
D.Utah: Govt had burden on proving RS to continue stop and failed to put on justification; suppressed
The government carried the burden on the basis for the stop but not why it was continued, and the record tells the court nothing about the first 65 minutes of delay. “[T]he court concludes that the dog’s entry into the … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Knights eliminated stalking horse theory of police using POs to conduct searches
Knights eliminated the stalking horse theory of police using POs to conduct searches because they can, too. United States v. Brun, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 239791 (D. Neb. Dec. 21, 2020). There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop from a … Continue reading
D.Md.: Taking driver’s cell phone with DL during traffic stop unreasonably extended stop and violated 4A
Taking defendant’s cell phone with DL during a traffic stop unreasonably extended the stop and was in excess of the purpose of a traffic stop. United States v. Morganstern, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 240746 (D. Me. Dec. 22, 2020). A … Continue reading
OH: Touching fog line not traffic violation
Resolving a state conflict, touching the right fog line is not a violation of Ohio’s traffic laws. State v. Turner, 2020-Ohio-6773, 2020 Ohio LEXIS 2814 (Dec. 22, 2020). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not arguing at a hearing an issue … Continue reading
OR: The fact some people lie is not RS
The officer had no subjective or objective reasonable suspicion that the vehicle defendant was driving, his mother’s, was without her permission, just become some people lie. State v. Smith, 308 Ore. App. 84 (Dec. 16, 2020). Defendant was claimed to … Continue reading
CA10: There was no violation of curtilage for def’s home on grounds of 24/7 storage company
Defendant lived on the grounds of a 24/7 storage building company. At 2:30 am, officers investigating saw cars coming and going from the residence. They approached his building, and the approach way wasn’t curtilage under Dunn. United States v. Powell, … Continue reading
CA8: Being a passenger in a stolen vehicle justifies a patdown for weapons
Defendant’s riding in a stolen car permits a patdown. “Further, to the extent Brooks argues questioning occurred before the frisk and exceeded the permissible scope of a Terry stop, we conclude that the officers were not required to give Miranda … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Roadside questioning in the patrol car doesn’t matter
“Also, the fact that Gardea was questioned in the patrol car is of no consequence. ‘An officer making a traffic stop does not violate the Fourth Amendment by asking the driver his destination and purpose, checking the license and registration, … Continue reading
WY: Questions about travel plans are allowed to put trip in “context”
Basic questions about where defendant and his passenger were going were reasonable to put their trip into “context.” That led to reasonable suspicion. Pryce v. State, 2020 WY 151, 2020 Wyo. LEXIS 178 (Dec. 16, 2020). (And one could ask: … Continue reading
DE: Actual presence of accused not required for suppression hearing and video appearance constitutional
A virtual suppression hearing that was a mixed question of law and fact didn’t require the actual presence of the accused under the Sixth Amendment’s confrontation clause, following United States v. Rosenschein, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129889 (D.N.M. July 23, … Continue reading
OR: Questions about drugs without RS during a traffic stop exceeded the basis of the stop
“ Officers conducting a traffic stop may only conduct investigation unrelated to that traffic stop if they have independent constitutional justification for further inquiries. Neither line of inquiry here (first, whether defendant had drugs, and second whether she illegally possessed … Continue reading
CA3: Pro se ptf stated claim for warrantless entry into his house
The district court erred in summarily dismissing plaintiff’s case at § 1915A screening for failure to state a claim, because he did in the attempted amended complaint. “Edwards alleged that Rice lacked a search warrant when she conducted an investigation … Continue reading