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- CA4: Cell phone non-forensic border search doesn’t require individualized suspicion
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- 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
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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
D.Kan.: Recusal motion can’t be used as subterfuge just to get rehearing of denied motion to suppress
This second recusal motion looks like defendant is just trying to get rehearing of the denial of his motion to suppress in front of a different judge, and it’s denied. United States v. Williamson, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 133111 (D. … Continue reading
CA1: Standing can’t be based on an untranslated document to put into evidence; even in D.P.R.
Defendant’s claim of standing in the home of another depends upon a Spanish language document [in PR federal court where everyone is bilingual] that was untranslated for the judge [and apparently not for appeal]. Therefore, his standing argument fails. But … Continue reading
N.D.Okla.: Court finds Franks burden satisfied that false statement was material to bolster PC
The court finds addition of information into the affidavit for the search warrant was reckless at best and then material to the finding of probable cause. Without it, the affidavit was too thin, and that’s likely the reason the offending … Continue reading
M.D.Tenn.: Tennessee’s “must cite” statute for misdemeanants doesn’t govern under 4A
Tennessee has a “must cite” statute, that misdemeanor arrestees are presumptive cited and released. That, however, doesn’t govern the Fourth Amendment under Virginia v. Moore. United States v. Chol, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129565 (M.D. Tenn. Aug. 2, 2019). The … Continue reading
CA6: Eyewitness identification alone can be RS
“So did the officer have reasonable suspicion to stop Lett? Yes. The eyewitness identifications, alone, created that suspicion.” United States v. Lett, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 22987 (6th Cir. Aug. 1, 2019).* Defendant’s traffic stop for moving within his own … Continue reading
CA8: Parole search of cell phone was reasonable
Defendant was on supervised release in Minnesota as a result of a state conviction. His cell phone was subject to search on reasonable suspicion, and Riley does not bar a parole or probation search of a cell phone. Moreover, his … Continue reading
KY: Officers approached men on a street corner talking; telling def to “hang tight for a minute” because he wanted to run his name and SSN was a seizure requiring RS
Officers saw a group on a corner, so they initiated contact, just because they wanted to. They also attempted to get them to clean up the trash on the corner, which wasn’t shown to be their fault or responsibility. When … Continue reading
MO: Def’s talking too fast and not looking as good as DL photo isn’t RS
The state trooper’s focus on defendant’s purse had nothing to do with the traffic stop, and it extended the stop. Her talking fast and not looking as good as the DL photo is not reasonable suspicion. The trial court’s suppression … Continue reading
MA: An unreasonable and overlong detention of the car is also one of the passengers
The mere fact the car was rented provided no indication to the officer that the defendant wasn’t permitted to drive it, thus no reasonable suspicion from that. Thus, the stop was unreasonably extended without reasonable suspicion. When the detention is … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: In an open carry state, more than presence of a gun is required for RS, and here the officers had it
In an open carry state, more is required for reasonable suspicion, and here it was present. “The Court finds that, by the time Officer Gohn saw the firearm in plain view on the floorboard of the Chevy Cobalt and verbally … Continue reading
KS: If the officer had RS, he waited 24 minutes to call for a drug dog and then couldn’t get one for hours; stop too long and unreasonable
The officer supposedly had reasonable suspicion early into the stop, but he delayed 24 minutes before even attempting to locate a drug dog and it was then found that a drug dog couldn’t get there for quite a while. The … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Holding def’s driver’s license shows he’s not free to leave
The officer continued to hold defendant’s driver’s license, and that meant to him he sure wasn’t free to leave. United States v. Steffens, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122096 (N.D. Iowa July 23, 2019). Defendant was stopped for a muddy license … Continue reading
NY3: No suppression hearing for lack of pleading a factual basis for suppression
Defendant was properly denied a suppression hearing for not alleging a factual basis for a suppression motion. People v. Seecoomar, 2019 NY Slip Op 05727, 2019 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5742 (3d Dept. July 18, 2019).* The stop was justified. … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: Def’s mother did not have joint control over a trailer he lived in on her property; officers at minimum should have inquired more
Defendant lived on property with his mother, but he was in a trailer. It was unreasonable for officers to believe that she had joint control over his part of the property. At best, the situation was such that officers should … Continue reading
PA: Birchfield doesn’t prevent evidence of refusal
“[W]e conclude the ‘evidentiary consequence’ provided by Section 1547(e) for refusing to submit to a warrantless blood test — the admission of that refusal at a subsequent trial for DUI — remains constitutionally permissible post-Birchfield. We therefore affirm the order … Continue reading
D.N.H.: Directing def to get out of his car after completion of all the tasks with the stop was to prolong it, not for safety reasons
At the point the stop should have been over because nothing was awry, directing defendant to get out of the car for a patdown that led to a finding of a wad of cash prolonged the stop under Rodriguez. “Rather, … Continue reading
Cal.3: Broad electronic parole search condition was reasonable and related to the crime
Defendant was convicted of identity theft and he had an electronic search condition for his release. The computer search release condition was reasonable and not overbroad, and it was related to the underlying crime and how it was committed. People … Continue reading
W.D.Ark.: Speaking Spanish isn’t even a factor in RS or PC for a vehicle search
The fact the driver of a car spoke Spanish was not reasonable suspicion or probable cause because at least 10% of the U.S. population speaks Spanish. The search of the car was without probable cause, and the exclusionary would be … Continue reading
CO: Officer’s statement there was PC for a SW was irrelevant at trial
Whether there was probable cause for a search warrant is irrelevant at trial and should not be admitted. This was a part of defendant’s cumulative error argument. Howard-Walker v. People, 2019 CO 69, 2019 Colo. LEXIS 573 (July 1, 2019). … Continue reading
IA: Where owner of car was female and had a suspended license, a stop was reasonable when a woman and three men got into it
Officers knew the owner of the car was female, and there was a woman in the group that got into it, so, for reasonable suspicion purposes, it was reasonable to believe she might be driving and stop the car where … Continue reading