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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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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
OH2: Officer’s sexual assault of motorist criminally violated 4A
Defendant was a part time police officer conviction of state civil rights violations for sexual assault during frisks of women that clearly exceeded the Fourth Amendment. State v. Sanderson, 2019-Ohio-3589, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 3673 (2d Dist. Sept. 6, 2019).* … Continue reading
N.D.Ala.: Officer doesn’t have to tell a motorist he smells MJ in the car
The officer recognized defendant as having an arrest warrant on him. When the stop occurred, the officer smelled marijuana and that justified a search of the car. The fact the officer didn’t mention to defendant that he smelled marijuana isn’t … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Older information in SW application substantiated by CI information from day before; not stale
Parts of the information were old, but the search warrant was not stale because a critical part of the affidavit showed that there was credible reason to believe drugs would be found there because of the CI’s observation the day … Continue reading
CA10: Def could not be charged with obstruction for refusing patdown that lacked RS
“The officer arrested Romero for obstruction because he failed to immediately comply with the officer’s request that he submit to a pat-down search. Romero argued in his motion that the firearm must be suppressed because the officer had neither (1) … Continue reading
CA5: Immigration stop was short and then justified being extended by RS
“The less-than-three-minute immigration stop was sufficiently brief under the Fourth Amendment …, and Escobar’s nervous and evasive behavior, unusual responses to lawful questions, and provision of a suspicious bill of lading gave agents sufficient reasonable suspicion to extend the stop. … Continue reading
CA2: RS of stolen car not immediately dispelled by computer check
Officers had unusual facts during their stop of defendant that supported reasonable suspicion the vehicle might be stolen. Even a computer check didn’t completely dispel reasonable suspicion, so brief continuation of the stop was proper. United States v. Wallace, 2019 … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: The single question “Is there anything illegal in the car” doesn’t unlawfully extend the stop
“Even assuming here that the single question, whether there is anything illegal 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
CA10: No occupant having a DL justified extending the stop
Defendant was a passenger detained with the driver. Nobody had a DL, and that reasonably caused the extension of the stop. His argument reasonable suspicion didn’t extend to him “cannot support Gurule’s theory that he was unlawfully detained as a … Continue reading
NC: Def’s arrest was without PC, but he abandoned his gun
“The trial court erred in denying Defendant’s motion to suppress the firearm based on its reasoning that officers had the probable cause necessary to arrest Defendant for resisting, delaying, or obstructing a public officer. The firearm, however, was not the … Continue reading
VI: RS exists on smell of marijuana in a car even though locally small amounts of MJ was decriminalized
Despite decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana in VI, reasonable suspicion of possession of a small amount of marijuana is still contraband (an issue already settled here) that can justify a stop. Here, officers were watching a high crime area … Continue reading
VA: Def’s ignoring shouts to show his hands and reaching to back seat justified pulling him out of the car and doing a sweep of the car
Defendant ignored 7-10 shouts to keep his hands up and get out of the car, and he reached down into the back seat. Officers opened the door and pulled him. Then he was seized, and it was reasonable to pull … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: An NCIC check is within the normal mission of a traffic stop
An NCIC check is within the normal mission of a traffic stop. “Next, regardless of the timing of events, ‘most courts confronted with the issue have determined that checking a passenger’s driver’s license in addition to the vehicle driver’s license … Continue reading
ID: Two brief calls to inquire about the location of drug dog didn’t constitute abandonment of the stop for investigation
Two brief calls during the traffic stop to inquire about a drug dog were not themselves abandonment of the stop in favor of the dog. It was reasonable at the time and didn’t extend the stop. State v. Still, 2019 … Continue reading
OH5: Trial court erred in holding def couldn’t be ordered out of car without RS
The trial court erred in holding that the state trooper had no reason to order defendant out of her car, and the inquiry stopped there. Under Mimms, however, it’s entirely under the officer’s discretion. When he stopped her, her pants … Continue reading
D.Me.: Arrest outside master bedroom of known drug house justified protective sweep of bedroom
Defendant arrested 8′ from master bedroom in a house known for drug activity justified a protective sweep of the bedroom. United States v. Pemberton, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146615 (D. Me. May 17, 2019),* adopted, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 145167 … Continue reading
W.D.La.: Reasonable suspicion in part on a lie caught by a LPN reader
Louisiana tracks the LPNs of vehicles crossing from Texas on I-10. Defendant was stopped for a traffic offense and lied about his travels saying he came from within Louisiana. During their interaction, he became way more nervous. There was reasonable … Continue reading
CA10: Dist Ct credited that defendant was “unusually nervous” rather than just “nervous” as a contributing factor to RS
The district court credited that defendant was “unusually nervous” rather than just “nervous” as a contributing factor to reasonable suspicion. Defendant was stopped for a traffic offense, and the officer asked for consent to search. Defendant asked what would happen … Continue reading
NC: Giving cop the finger was RS for stop for disorderly conduct, despite it being recognized free speech
Giving a cop the finger, although universally now recognized as protected speech, was reasonable suspicion for a stop for disorderly conduct. [The dissent has the far better argument, here. The majority is just wrong, and cites cases that prove it.] … Continue reading
OH8: Cell phone not ordered returned because of its potential use in evidence
Defendant’s cell phone was still potential evidence in his retrial, so it won’t be ordered returned to him. State v. Metz, 2019-Ohio-3370, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 3440 (8th Dist. Aug. 22, 2019). Officers approached defendant’s house for a welfare check, … Continue reading
ND: Pole camera surveillance caught def frequenting a trailer park known for drug sales; he was stopped there with RS
Reasonable suspicion existed to detain defendant for coming into a trailer park known for its drug sales. Police had a pole camera set up recording comings and goings, and defendant had been there multiple times before. On the totality of … Continue reading