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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
D.Vt.: If the arrest is invalid, the search incident is, too
Defendant’s arrest was without probable cause, so the search incident to his arrest must be suppressed. United States v. Williams, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58067 (D. Vt. Apr. 4, 2019).* “Here, many factors formed Detective Deshaies’s objectively reasonable basis to … Continue reading
WI: Exclusionary rule applies to forfeiture actions; remanded for determination of GFE
The exclusionary rule applies to forfeiture actions under 1958 Plymouth Sedan; however, the state gets to argue and develop a record on remand that the good faith exception applies. State v. Scott, 2019 Wisc. App. LEXIS 191 (Apr. 4, 2019). … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: State law was more protective than the 4A when the case was in state court, but it doesn’t apply in federal court
While state law was more protective of privacy rights and this case started as a state investigation, state law would not be applied to the motion to suppress the search. Only federal law applies. United States v. Capozzi, 2019 U.S. … Continue reading
Cert. granted: Glover v. Kansas
Cert. granted: Glover v. Kansas, 18-556 Issue: Whether, for purposes of an investigative stop under the Fourth Amendment, it is reasonable for an officer to suspect that the registered owner of a vehicle is the one driving the vehicle absent … Continue reading
IA: Multiple hand-to-hand transactions over time was RS
Reasonable suspicion came here from an officer “witnessing what he believed to be a hand-to-hand drug transaction,” and there were “other facts that supported the conclusion they had reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. First, Girsch saw Baker acting suspiciously near … Continue reading
D.S.C.: Byrd on standing in a rental car not retroactively applied to search 7 months before
The officer was diligently pursuing the traffic stop albeit with a mixed motive about defendant being a drug suspect. Under Whren, this was reasonable. Byrd was decided seven months after the stop. Under pre-Byrd law, defendant had no standing, and … Continue reading
ID: Entry on a writ of execution was reasonable under 4A
A state officer acting on a writ of execution issued by a state court was reasonable. Moreover, plaintiff’s claim is really just a suggestion in a pleading, not in the complaint. Thornton v. Barrett, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53388 (D. … Continue reading
CA11: Failure to object to USMJ’s R&R on search claim is waiver for appeal
Defendant waived his suppression motion by not seeking review of the USMJ’s R&R. United States v. Pugh, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 9254 (11th Cir. Mar. 28, 2019). “The Court need not determine whether any of these facts alone would be … Continue reading
OH7: No REP in a police interrogation room where def was left with wife with recorder on
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a police interrogation room where defendant was left and was recorded talking to his wife about the shooting. State v. Paige, 2019-Ohio-1088, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 1162 (7th Dist. Mar. 27, 2019) … Continue reading
PA: “The Fourth Amendment does not have a time limit; it protects individuals from unreasonable seizures, no matter how brief.”
“The Fourth Amendment does not have a time limit; it protects individuals from unreasonable seizures, no matter how brief.” The brief detention here wasn’t based on reasonable suspicion and implicated the Fourth Amendment. Commonwealth v. Adams, 2019 Pa. LEXIS 1734 … Continue reading
WA: It’s defendant’s burden to show a seizure occurred
“An appellant making an unconstitutional seizure claim has the burden of proving that a seizure occurred. … [¶] Here, Yang consented to Koster’s entry. Throughout their time in the house, Lucas and Koster told Ho what they were doing. They … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Def did nothing to show his standing in the car or the things seized from it
Reasonable suspicion supported the stop for no license plate light. Then, defendant lacks a reasonable expectation of privacy in the car or its contents. “However, neither Defendant’s affidavit nor the evidence adduced at the hearing establish that Defendant had any … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Unsealing of SW materials not granted preindictment
The Sacramento Bee and defendant seek unsealing of search warrant materials in an extradition matter, but the motion is denied. Extradition is different than prosecution. If a criminal prosecution will result in the United States, and it still could, the … Continue reading
N.D.Va.: False name during traffic stop justified extending stop
Defendant’s providing a false name was enough for the officer to extend the stop with reasonable suspicion. United States v. Boley, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46935 (N.D. Va. Mar. 21, 2019). Revealing the plaintiff’s identity as a CI in a … Continue reading
IL: No REP in common hallway of unlocked apartment building; distinguished door dog sniff case
There was no reasonable expectation of privacy in the common area of an unlocked apartment building where observation of handling a gun occurred. The court distinguishes the use of a drug dog at an apartment door which does become a … Continue reading
NY2: No REP in a computer open on a P2P network
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a computer open to the world on a P2P network and anybody can come into. People v. Worrell, 2019 NY Slip Op 02127, 2019 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2111 (2d Dept. Mar. … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: Def should have discovered his 4A claim with exercise of due diligence years earlier; 2255 denied
2255 petitioner sought to extend the statute of limitations for what he alleges is a late discovered search and seizure claim with merit. The court finds that he would have discovered the claim years early with the exercise of due … Continue reading
Reason: Volokh Conspiracy: New Cert Petition: Does the Fourth Amendment Allow “Information Seeking” Stops of Suspects?
Reason: Volokh Conspiracy: New Cert Petition: Does the Fourth Amendment Allow “Information Seeking” Stops of Suspects? by Orin Kerr:
MN: A blood sample in a lab is not “information” within the physician-patient privilege statute
A blood sample in a lab is not “information” within the physician-patient privilege statute. The state sought a search warrant for the blood sample. State v. Atwood, 2019 Minn. LEXIS 122 (Mar. 13, 2019). “[B]y the time Defendant complied with … Continue reading
CA11: Nearby drug dog helped expedite and detention was reasonable
There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s detention for a drug dog. It also helped expedite matters that a drug dog was across the street from the stop. United States v. Rodriguez, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 7236 (11th Cir. Mar. 12, … Continue reading