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Recent Posts
- Vanguard: SF Court Dismisses Felony Charges after Judge Finds Racial Bias Tainted SFPD Stop and Arrest
- OH7: Magistrate signing SW for something outside of territorial jurisdiction not a 4A violation
- 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
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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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"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.Mo.: 4A IAC claim denied for not specifying what it would prove and because waived by plea
“Petitioner’s Claim 9 is likewise conclusory and without merit. Petitioner claims that counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate a potential Fourth Amendment violation regarding Petitioner’s consent to search his residence and computer. However, Petitioner has not explained how such … Continue reading
KS: Words spoken on one’s curtilage heard off the property are not protected by the 4A
Defendant was convicted of violating an order of protection for speaking disparagingly about the other person. She made the comment from her curtilage to her husband but loud enough to be heard across the street where the other person lived. … Continue reading
OH2: Road rage: Panicked driver’s pointing out car that pointed gun justified stop under Navarette and Long permitted protective search for weapon
“Based upon the informant’s face-to-face, contemporaneous, and panicked report of a startling event (the waving of a gun in the vehicle directly behind Underwood’s cruiser), we conclude that the informant’s tip was reliable. This reliability allowed Underwood ‘to credit the … Continue reading
LA: Two Rodriguez violations: car searched for weapon without RS then female officer called for a body search
Defendant was detained unreasonably without reasonable suspicion and then her car was searched for a weapon but none was found. Then the detaining officer called for a female officer to conduct a search of her person. “Because reasonable suspicion was … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: The single question “are there any weapons in the car” doesn’t extend the stop in violation of Rodriguez
“Even assuming here that the single question, whether there were any weapons in the car, was not related to the mission of the traffic stop, the question did not violate the Fourth Amendment because it did not lengthen the traffic … Continue reading
CA3: Smell of burnt MJ and passenger rolling a blunt warranted stop and frisk for weapons
Defendants’ stop and frisk was reasonable. Their car was parked in a convenience stop parking lot, the motor was running, and the driver was apparently inside. The passenger was rolling a blunt, suggesting more marijuana in the car, and the … Continue reading
TN: Belated writ of error coram nobis can’t be used in state court to challenge search that already was used in a federal case too to attempt to undo the federal case
Petitioner appears to be attempting to challenge his federal conviction in state court in a parallel criminal proceeding where the same search was used in both cases. He’s attempting to challenge the search in state court by writ of error … Continue reading
W.D.Ark.: Whether windshield was cracked enough to be a violation of traffic laws doesn’t matter, it was still cracked which was enough for a stop
Defendant was stopped because of a crack in the windshield. He argued it wasn’t sufficiently cracked to be a violation of law. The point is, however, that the stop was at least justified by the crack. “To summarize, Officer Johnson … Continue reading
OH2: On entry to arrest defendant when children were found at home, it was not unreasonable to look for others to care for them
On arresting defendant at home, the police later obtained a search warrant, too. The initial entry into the rest of the house to look for someone to tend to the children with defendant at the time of arrest was reasonable. … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Advance notice def driving into state doesn’t require SW for car under automobile exception
Defendant concedes officers had probable cause. Just because they had advance notice defendant was coming because of the breadth of their investigation, the automobile exception allowed a vehicle search because of the mobility of the car. Advance notice still doesn’t … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Questions about def having a firearm were unrelated to the basis of the stop; suppression granted
Defendant’s stop was pretextual, but it was with an objective basis. He was leaving a funeral at night with overtinted windows, and the officer couldn’t see inside. He was repeatedly asked about firearms in the car, something unrelated to the … Continue reading
NC: Recognizing tension between prior cases and Navarette, the court finds this stop the same as Navarette
The NC courts have long recognized detailed anonymous tips as providing reasonable suspicion for a traffic stop, even before Navarette. “However, in light of the State’s argument, we must acknowledge the apparent tension between our prior case law addressing similar … Continue reading
W.D.Wis.: Officers had a reasonable belief under Payton def was on the premises for execution of an arrest warrant
Based on surveillance, officers had a reasonable belief, even probable cause, to believe that defendant was in the house when they came with an arrest warrant. United States v. Burgess, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 157755 (W.D. Wis. Aug. 12, 2019),* … Continue reading
CA2: Initially stopping for a police signal, arguing with officers, and then fleeing in a high speed chase wasn’t a “seizure” until he was arrested after the chase
Defendant wasn’t seized when he stopped as a result of a police signal, became argumentative, and fled the scene without submitting to authority. After that, he was seized after a high speed chase that gave the officers probable cause for … Continue reading
FL5: Def made prima facie case that counsel’s abandoned search claim could have won; reversed
Defendant made a prima facie case at his post-conviction hearing. The evidence presented at the evidentiary hearing showed there was a reasonable probability that the motion to suppress would have been granted if pursued, and the evidence the State needed … Continue reading
OR: Appeal of order of mother in juvenile case to provide UAs affirmed for an insufficient appellate record
The mother of a juvenile was ordered to give observed UAs as a part of a dependency-neglect proceeding. She didn’t provide a sufficient appellate record to decide whether the trial court’s order violated the state constitution, so it’s affirmed. Dep’t … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: The affidavit lacked PC and didn’t connect def’s van to the crime, but the GFE applies anyway
The affidavit lacked probable cause and didn’t connect defendant’s van to the crime. Yet, it wasn’t so bad that the good faith exception couldn’t apply. [Seems like it should not have applied.] United States v. Burgess, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Almost immediate dog sniff during stop didn’t prolong it
The officer had an objective basis for the stop, so defendant’s pretext claim fails. The dog sniff occurred almost immediately during the stop and the stop wasn’t prolonged for it. United States v. Martinez, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155124 (N.D. … Continue reading
Iowa this week
A traffic stop can be based on probable cause or reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation. The trial court credited that the officer believed a headlight was out, and the evidence supports that conclusion. State v. White, 2019 Iowa App. … Continue reading