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- 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)
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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
CO: Every officer involved doesn’t need to be called to testify to collective knowledge
The trial court misapplied the collective knowledge doctrine and held that the state failed to show reasonable suspicion without testimony from every officer involved. There was, in fact, reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop. Officers followed a vehicle from the home … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: Def’s stop was in 2011 and he doesn’t get the benefit of 2015’s Rodriguez
“The search in the present case occurred in 2011. Hare’s focus on Rodriguez, which was issued in 2015, is misplaced. The Fifth Circuit has ‘repeatedly held that “there is no general duty on the part of defense counsel to anticipate … Continue reading
CA7: RS existed for defs’ stop despite others had been stopped, too: “Terry does not authorize broad dragnets, but it also does not require perfection or precision.”
On the totality, officers had reasonable suspicion for a Terry stop of defendants for being involved in an armed robbery. He was near the scene, walking away, although he matched the description by race and gender. Moreover, two other men … Continue reading
CA6: Ptf states claim that opening wallet during protective search violated 4A
There were disputed issues of material fact to the arrestee’s claims, including whether the officers exceeded the scope of a lawful protective search by removing the arrestee’s wallet from his pants. King v. United States, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 5438 … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: Confronting possible trespassers in a house and asking for IDs was reasonable
The officer here confronted trespassers which he suspected might be squatters and drug users. “The Court finds that the officer’s questions and actions were reasonably related to learning the identities of the people on the property, learning whether they were … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Despite McDonald under the 2A, apparent possession of a weapon after hearing shots fired can be considered as RS
Defendant asserted that he had a Second Amendment right to possess a handgun, and that the court could not consider that in assessing reasonable suspicion. The court disagrees because here the officers were responding to hearing shots fired and saw … Continue reading
NM: Reserve deputy’s stop of suspected DUI to call for a deputy was a reasonable minor intrusion
A reserve deputy followed defendant who was driving badly and then she ran into a car in her driveway. He stopped behind her and told her to “hang tight,” and he called for a deputy. The stop was reasonable, considering … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: RS of a weapon nearby in a car authorizes opening the door
“In this case the officers had either probable cause or reasonable suspicion to open the car doors to substantiate their belief that weapons, drugs and money were in the vehicle. Further, they were authorized to take photographs to inventory the … Continue reading
PA: Blocking def’s vehicle showed he wasn’t free to leave, and it lacked RS
“Having determined that Officer Byrne effectuated an investigatory detention upon pulling behind Appellant’s vehicle, and that such detention was not supported by a reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot nor excused from constitutional warrant requirements by the public servant … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: No RS for stop for alleged street deals based on CI
The officers’ claimed reasonable suspicion of street drug deals in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District just doesn’t add up to it on the totality of circumstances. The CI wasn’t adequately corroborated. The stop and frisk fails. United States v. Castaneda, 2019 … Continue reading
M.D.Ga.: A stop based on a mere hunch of wrongdoing is suppressed
Defendants’ stop is found to be based on a hunch and not reasonable suspicion founded on facts. The purported tip is found to be a pretext for the stop. United States v. Hall, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18088 (M.D. Ga. … Continue reading
NJ: When the subject of a loud music complaint turned down the sound, no RS existed for continued detention
Police were called to a motel room because of a loud music complaint. The renter turned the music down, and, with that, the police should have left. Instead they wanted IDs and found a warrant on defendant. There was no … Continue reading
D.Neb.: No REP in psych hospital’s bathroom stalls
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a psych hospital’s bathroom stalls where plaintiff was involuntarily committed. Narcisse v. Kubes, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16111 (D. Neb. Feb. 1, 2019). There was reasonable suspicion to stop and detain defendant … Continue reading
WA: Sitting in a car in a parking lot holding a gun is not RS that a crime is going to occur
A report to the police of a man sitting in a car holding a gun in his lap was not reasonable suspicion, and it could not be the basis of a stop. Just holding a gun is not an indication … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Officers’ testimony about smell of PCP was too equivocal to be reliable
The officers’ testimony about allegedly smelling PCP when they stopped defendant was too equivocal through the hearing to be reliable. A patdown of defendant off that alleged smell produced a gun in his pocket. Defendant’s alleged consent to the patdown … Continue reading
OR: In a DUII stop, a request for consent to search is not reasonably related to the basis for the stop; it unreasonably extended it
In a DUII stop, a request for consent to search is not reasonably related to the basis for the stop and it unreasonably extended it. State v. Rondeau, 295 Or. App. 769, 2019 Ore. App. LEXIS 123 (Jan. 24, 2019). … Continue reading
CA5: No RS for def’s stop on totality <50 miles from border
There was no reasonable suspicion on the totality for defendant’s stop less than 50 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas. Officer’s experience was too limited to provide much of anything. United States v. Freeman, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 2622 … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Passenger’s conduct and answers during traffic stop provided RS
The passenger’s conduct here showed reasonable suspicion to continue the stop. United States v. Torres, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10590 (D. N.M. Jan. 23, 2019). The government obtained CSLI in 2015 for 57 days of defendants’ cell phones, and the … Continue reading