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- Reason: No Warrant, No Suspicion, No Problem: Flock and Border Cellphone Searches Excluded From 4th Amendment Rules
- Reason: Flock’s Gunfire Alerts Raise a New Fourth Amendment Question
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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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--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: Stop and frisk
Daily Beast: ‘Red Flags’ as New Documents Point to Blind Spots of NYPD ‘Predictive Policing’
Daily Beast: ‘Red Flags’ as New Documents Point to Blind Spots of NYPD ‘Predictive Policing’ by Ali Winston: “They’re digitizing the legacy of stop-and-frisk. This is effectively math-washing racially biased policing practices.”
CA9: Criminal history can be a consideration in the totality of PC
Defendant’s state parole search condition required no cause, and the search was valid. There also was probable cause on the totality, and criminal history was a valid consideration of probable cause, but not determinative. United States v. King, 2019 U.S. … Continue reading
PA: Officer’s belief of possession of a concealed firearm is not RS for a stop and frisk
Officer’s belief of possession of a concealed firearm is not reasonable suspicion of unlawful use of a firearm. Prior case law from 1991 is disapproved. Commonwealth v. Hicks, 2019 Pa. LEXIS 3064 (May 31, 2019):
Cleveland.com: Cleveland police must detail why officers stop and search suspects under new policies
Cleveland.com: Cleveland police must detail why officers stop and search suspects under new policies by Eric Heisig, CLEVELAND, Ohio — The city of Cleveland’s new police search and seizure policies should be approved by a judge so officers can be … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Govt fails its burden of proof to show RS for a stop and frisk based on credibility of the officer; it was a hunch at best
Defendant was seen at 1 am in a high crime area on the street in the Bronx talking with three others. The officer claimed he could see him adjusting his waistband, suggesting a gun. Collectively, the court simply doesn’t believe … Continue reading
CA11 (en banc): Frisk in high crime area at 4 am produced ammunition and empty holster by plain feel
A frisk at 4 am in a high crime area was not only justified, it produced one round of ammunition and an empty holster by plain feel. That led to a search of the ground that produced the firearm. The … 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
CA5: Ptf’s indictment by a Texas grand jury cuts off his malicious prosecution claim
Plaintiff’s indictment by a Texas grand jury cuts off his malicious prosecution claim. There was no evidence the grand jury was misled. Curtis v. Sowell, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 4666 (5th Cir. Feb. 15, 2019). Defendant was encountered by police … Continue reading
OH9: Inadequate findings on officer safety patdown requires remand
The trial court’s findings of an alleged officer safety justification for his patdown are inadequate for the court of appeals to decide whether the state justified the patdown. Remanded for more findings. State v. Murphy, 2019-Ohio-515, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS … Continue reading
IA: Stolen tractor tires were visible from the curtilage and entry permitted
Defendant was suspected of possession of stolen property. Police came to his rural property to talk to him where he was self-employed working on tractors in back. He had a circular driveway. From the driveway they could see the outbuildings … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: When jail calls are a part of the PC for a SW affidavit, transcripts aren’t required
“Dubose raises a slew of arguments [not a good sign] in support of her contention that the affidavit fails to establish probable cause to search the iPhone; however, none of those arguments has merit.” There was an argument that a … Continue reading
MN: Drunk sleeping man who’d just threatened woman with gun could be frisked for weapon under emergency exception, but not Terry
Defendant was drunk in a house allegedly threatening a woman and her infant child with a gun. He passed out. She called the police. The police entered, and defendant was asleep on the couch. They patted him down for a … Continue reading
NJ: Officer had RS def was armed; refusal of patdown justified exigent strip search at station house
The officer had reasonable suspicion that defendant was armed, and he attempted to perform a frisk, which defendant refused. This led to a warrantless strip search which was justified by the Fourth Amendment exigency exception and by state statute and … Continue reading
IA: The facts showing RS can also add up to PC
The facts supporting reasonable suspicion to stop defendant were enough for probable cause, and add to that the fact defendant slowed down and tossed a baggie of marijuana from the car. Mention in a search warrant of a Nevada drug … Continue reading
Chicago Sun-Times: Trump wants Chicago cops to have more stop-and-frisk power; bad idea, says Rahm
Chicago Sun-Times: Trump wants Chicago cops to have more stop-and-frisk power; bad idea, says Rahm by Lynn Sweet, Frank Main, Fran Spielman:
N.D.Ill.: Shots fired 911 call and citizen report led to car; protective sweep of back seat was permissible
Chicago police officers received a man on the street report (treated as anonymous but reliable) that shots were just fired from a particular vehicle. There were also 911 calls about the shots. The vehicle was shortly seen, and that was … Continue reading
NYLJ: NYPD Stop-and-Frisk Litigation Plaintiffs Say Confidentiality Order Would Erode Transparency
NYLJ: NYPD Stop-and-Frisk Litigation Plaintiffs Say Confidentiality Order Would Erode Transparency by Andrew Denney: Plaintiffs in the stop-and-frisk litigation against the New York City Police Department said that a federal monitor’s proposed confidentiality order would hide key data, such as … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: No RS for stop and frisk at 1:30 am in residential area
Police received a 911 call 1:21 am about a potential prowler, but the caller didn’t look because she was afraid to. She also didn’t ask the police to come by. The officer was dispatched, and he did a drive by … Continue reading