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- 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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
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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)
--Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (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
CA4: Stopping only car in neighborhood after report of robbery was reasonable
“Approximately twenty minutes after Jacobs fled on foot, the police noticed Gilmore driving away from the neighborhood where the robbery occurred. At the time of the stop, Gilmore’s car was the only car on the road. Once the stop lawfully … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Objection to USMJ’s findings must specifically challenge 4A rationale
“Defendant’s objections do not address the Magistrate’s analysis or conclusions regarding Grounds 11 and 15. Instead, Defendant vaguely asserts that his counsel should have challenged the ‘validity of [the] evidence[.]’ (DE 406 at 7.) Defendant provides no basis to challenge … Continue reading
D.Colo.: Resisting a stop without RS is PC
Even if the stop was without reasonable suspicion, defendant’s resisting the officer was a separate crime that justifies with probable cause. United States v. Kazadi, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109060 (D. Colo. June 22, 2020). Defendant’s stop on a country … Continue reading
OH2: Furtive movement during knock-and-talk justified entry
Officers entered an apartment building with the consent of one of the tenants when they were investigating a threat with a firearm by one of the tenants. Their knock-and-talk at defendant’s door was reasonable, as was ordering him to open … Continue reading
D.Me.: CI’s prediction of future events enhanced veracity
There was probable cause for the search, and the CI’s veracity was enhanced by the CI’s prediction of future conduct. United States v. Stevenson, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105420 (D. Me. June 17, 2020). “While Mendoza-Ricardo argues that the purpose … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Lack of officer reports of facts for PC to arrest goes only to their credibility, but they still were
There was ample probable cause for defendants’ arrest and stopping their car to do it despite the lack of reports. That goes to credibility, and the court finds it wanting. United States v. Davis, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105973 (D. … Continue reading
NY2: CBP had RS for computer search for CP on def’s return through customs
Defendant was an airline pilot. HSI conducted a child pornography search at a residence in Texas that had an IP address associated with defendant, but none was found. Reasonably believing he had child pornography on his devices, they found he … Continue reading
D.Utah: Not having rental agreement in hand permits officer to inquire of rental car company during stop
Defendant’s inability to produce a rental agreement for his car was a factor in reasonable suspicion and permitted the officer to call the rental car company to check. He also determined that defendant drove to California with a short turnaround. … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Inevitable discovery obviated def’s Franks challenge
A Franks hearing wasn’t required because the court finds that, even if Franks could be satisfied here, the evidence was inevitably found. United States v. Chapline, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104509 (W.D. N.Y. June 12, 2020). It was reasonable to … Continue reading
KS: Glover remanded to trial court
Kansas v. Glover is remanded to the trial court. State v. Glover, 2020 Kan. LEXIS 43 (June 12, 2020).
D.Md.: Even if defense counsel had pursued a motion to suppress and won, the proof was so strong there was no Strickland prejudice
Even if defendant on post-conviction could have shown that a motion to suppress would have been granted if made, he can’t show prejudice because the proof at trial showed he almost certainly would have been convicted even without that evidence. … Continue reading
CA8: Due process right to informational privacy not clearly established
Surveying SCOTUS cases, the court concludes that a due process right to informational privacy is not clearly established. Therefore, the motion to dismiss is granted. “Under Reichle, therefore, the uncertain status of the right to informational privacy means that Defendants … Continue reading
HI: Dog sniff for drugs in traffic stop was not reasonably related to the purpose of the stop
Dog sniff for drugs in traffic stop was not reasonably related to the purpose of the stop, and it is suppressed. State v. Ikimaka, 2020 Haw. LEXIS 139 (June 9, 2020):
D.Ariz.: Whether officer should have believed CI was lying not a Franks issue
Defendant contends that the affiant officer should have known that the CI was lying because of a motive to falsify, but doesn’t say how the officer would have known or did know. That’s insufficient for Franks. Another CI was not … Continue reading
TN: Issue of issuing magistrate’s jurisdiction moot by automobile exception
Defendant’s dispute over whether the judge issuing the search warrant had jurisdiction over the vehicle from which DNA was taken because it was located in a different county is moot. The officers had probable cause in investigating a bloody homicide, … Continue reading
NM doesn’t permit questions about travel in routine traffic stops while federal courts do
New Mexico requires under its state constitution that all questions during a traffic stop not be fishing expeditions about other things unless reasonable suspicion is present. Asking about where defendant had been and who he met were not related to … Continue reading
MA: Owner’s DL was suspended, and it wasn’t apparent that driver wasn’t owner when stop occurred
Similar to Glover, Massachusetts held well before that the suspension of the owner’s DL can justify a stop. There was no indication [such as gender] here that the driver could not be the owner, so the stop was with reasonable … Continue reading
WI: OUI justifies Gant search incident of vehicle based at least on RS evidence might be found
Arrest for OUI permits a search incident of the interior of defendant’s car for evidence of the offense under Gant based at least on reasonable suspicion. “[P1] We review a decision of the court of appeals affirming the circuit court … Continue reading