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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
ACLU Blog: Stop-and-Frisk Settlement in Milwaukee Lawsuit Is a Wakeup Call for Police Nationwide
ACLU Blog: Stop-and-Frisk Settlement in Milwaukee Lawsuit Is a Wakeup Call for Police Nationwide by Nusrat Choudhury: In a banner day for police reform, the city of Milwaukee has entered into a settlement agreement to end practices amounting to a … Continue reading
CA3: No REP from police being in a hotel hallway and then having RS for a frisk
The odor of marijuana coming from defendant’s hotel room was reasonable suspicion for his later stop and frisk in the hallway. “Appellant’s brief could also be read to assert that the police lacked reasonable suspicion to patrol the motel hallway. … Continue reading
Terry v. Ohio decided 50 years ago today
Today, Sunday, June 10th, is the 50th Anniversary of Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968). Ohio’s Eighth District Court of Appeals opinion is also noteworthy, drawing on common law and whatever recent authority there was, considering the court of … Continue reading
Philly.com: The solution to stopping stop-and-frisk problems in Philly: Abolish it | Opinion
Philly.com: The solution to stopping stop-and-frisk problems in Philly: Abolish it | Opinion
ND: Search of “squishy” thing in def’s bra wasn’t a search for weapons
The search of defendant after a patdown which included something “squishy” in her bra was unreasonable because it could not be a search for weapons. State v. Broom, 2018 ND 135, 2018 N.D. LEXIS 143 (June 5, 2018):
Washington City Paper: Civil Rights and Activist Groups Sue Bowser Over Stop-and-Frisk Data Collection
Washington City Paper: Civil Rights and Activist Groups Sue Bowser Over Stop-and-Frisk Data Collection by Matt Cohen: ACLU-DC, Black Lives Matter D.C., and the Stop Police Terror Project D.C. want the mayor and MPD to comply with the two-year-old law.
Baltimore Sun: Opinion: Predicting more biased policing in Baltimore
Baltimore Sun: Opinion: Predicting more biased policing in Baltimore: Police Commissioner Darryl De Sousa and Mayor Catherine Pugh recently announced measures meant to reduce violent crime in Baltimore, including ‘predictive policing,’ which they plan to be fully operational in the … Continue reading
NYTimes: Opinion: Don’t Let the Police Wreck Stop-and-Frisk Reforms
NYTimes: Opinion: Don’t Let the Police Wreck Stop-and-Frisk Reforms: We won the stop-and-frisk case in 2013, when a federal court ruled the New York City Police Department’s use of the practice was unconstitutional. But as the lawyers in the case, … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Motorcycle gang’s jacket and other vague things wasn’t RS; a Terry frisk requires separate justification from a Terry stop
A Terry stop doesn’t automatically include the ability to conduct a frisk because they have separate justifications. Here, defendant was wearing a motorcycle gang jacket, but nothing else came close to providing reasonable suspicion, and the motion to suppress is … Continue reading
AR: Search of def’s wallet in a frisk was unreasonable
The officer made a drug arrest in the park, and defendant was around and fidgeting with his hands repeatedly going in and out of his pockets. A frisk of defendant for a weapon was reasonable, but a search of his … Continue reading
MA: Two men walking together are stopped because of RS as to one; frisk of second was reasonable for officer safety
The officer here stopped Perez and Ramirez when he reasonably suspected Perez of carrying a firearm. The situation was tense, and, on the totality, the court finds the frisk of Ramirez, too, was reasonable for officer and public safety. Commonwealth … Continue reading
CA1: Inevitable discovery applies to patdown; safety ultimately justified it
The district court credited the testimony of the officer that the patdown was justified by legitimate safety concerns after he got inconsistent dates of birth from the passenger. While the patdown otherwise would have exceeded the scope of a lawful … Continue reading
National Review: Opinion: We Were Wrong about Stop-and-Frisk
National Review: Opinion: We Were Wrong about Stop-and-Frisk by Kyle Smith:
NY4: Frisk for a parking violation was unreasonable; just because def going in back of police car not good enough
Defendant was frisked without an articulable safety justification for a parking violation, and it was based on the fact the officer was putting defendant in the back of the patrol car. That’s not good enough. Also, the search of defendant’s … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Squeezing a leather bag in a frisk and hearing bullets was reasonable
During a frisk, squeezing a leather bag without searching it was reasonable to look for a possible weapon. See United States v. Mattarolo, 209 F.3d 1153, 1158 (9th Cir. 2000). He heard the sound of bullets, and didn’t search further … Continue reading
PA: Anonymous tip man on specific bus was armed was insufficient for stop and frisk of def
An anonymous tip that a man on a specific bus was carrying a gun was insufficient to stop and frisk the defendant. When the officer drew a gun on him he was detained, and his subsequent actions could not be … Continue reading
OH5: RS for drugs means likely guns, so ability to frisk automatic
“The Ohio Supreme Court has stated that ‘the right to frisk is virtually automatic when individuals are suspected of committing a crime, like drug trafficking, for which they are likely to be armed.’ Evans at ¶ 9. Further, ‘[r]ecognizing the … Continue reading
WY recognizes invasion of privacy cause of action from Restatement of Torts for rental company’s tracking software on rented computers
Aspen Way leases computers in Wyoming. “The complaints each generally alleged that Aspen Way installed software on Plaintiffs’ leased computers, without Plaintiffs’ knowledge, that enabled Aspen Way to track the leased computers’ locations, remotely activate the computers’ webcams, and capture … Continue reading
NYTimes: City Police Officers Are Not Reporting All Street Stops, Monitor Says
NYTimes: City Police Officers Are Not Reporting All Street Stops, Monitor Says by Al Baker: More than two years into his tenure, a court-appointed monitor overseeing changes to the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policies has found that some officers … Continue reading