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- CA3: Ptf was arrested on an apparent but recalled warrant, then officers confirmed it and let him go; the arrest was reasonable
- N.D.Ohio: Failure to serve state SW within state mandated time not 4A violation
- NY1: Gunshot through floor from apartment above was exigency
- Reason: Most Civil Forfeiture Victims Never See the Inside of a Courtroom
- CA8: Admission of anonymous tip that led to stop violated Confrontation Clause
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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)
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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: Reasonableness
CA11: Def’s innocent explanation for his behavior still left PC
Defendant’s innocent explanation for his behavior still left probable cause. United States v. Clark, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 11504 (11th Cir. Apr. 28, 2022). Defendant was arrested two weeks after a string of robberies, and his cell phone was taken … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Violation of state SW statutes and rules not a 4A violation
Violation of state statutes or rules in issuing search warrants is not a Fourth Amendment issue. And, nexus was shown: “So interpreting the affidavit, and based on the totality of the circumstances including the role cell phones generally play in … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: City’s court order made clean up and removal of ptf’s property reasonable
Plaintiff was told for years to clean up his property from unsightly construction materials and equipment. After many failed efforts to get him to do so, the city obtained a court order to remove the property. It removed nine trailerloads … Continue reading
D.S.D.: Def’s delay on his own paperwork extended the stop
The stop was reasonably extended by the passenger’s not providing paperwork timely and in giving apparently false information. United States v. Wise, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65558 (D.S.D. Apr. 8, 2022).* There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop. “The totality … Continue reading
CA4: The fact a traffic stop could have been more efficient doesn’t mean it was otherwise unreasonable
“In sum, though the stop could have been shorter (and begun more efficiently), it wasn’t impermissibly prolonged. Marcel and Haigler’s actions were reasonably related to investigating an expired license plate. And this basis for the stop quickly mushroomed into other … Continue reading
OR: Officer’s conclusion def violated traffic law here not reasonable
The officer’s conclusion defendant violated a traffic law here wasn’t a reasonable conclusion, and the motion to suppress should have been granted. State v. Brown, 318 Ore. App. 713, 2022 Ore. App. LEXIS 585 (Apr. 6, 2022). A named CI’s … Continue reading
CA3: “[R]easonableness [of force] under the Fourth Amendment should frequently remain a question for the jury”
“Given the totality of the circumstances, the District Court erred in concluding as a matter of law that the use of force was objectively reasonable. See Giles v. Kearney, 571 F.3d 318, 327 n.4 (3d Cir. 2009) (denying summary judgment … Continue reading
CA3: Def’s flight before the “Rodriguez moment” was on him
“We have ‘recognized the possibility that the Rodriguez moment occurs when an officer no longer pursues the tasks tied to the traffic stop even though he reasonably could have continued with those tasks.’ Garner, 961 F.3d at 270 (citing Green, … Continue reading
CA6: There was PC for SW for real time pinging of def’s cell phone
There was probable cause for a search warrant for real time pinging of defendant’s cell phone to try and find out where he was. United States v. Ennis, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 8779 (6th Cir. Apr. 1, 2022). Defendant was … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Dog sniff during investigation of a traffic accident didn’t extend the stop
“The evidence before the Court indicates the canine sniff in this case did not prolong the ‘mission’ of Officer Sautter’s traffic accident investigation. The total length of time from when Defendant’s vehicle was struck to when Officer Sautter’s canine alerted … Continue reading
D.Neb.: State officer’s jurisdiction is not a 4A question
State officers outside their jurisdiction making an arrest is not alone a Fourth Amendment violation. Virginia v. Moore. United States v. Blair, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47833 (D.Neb. Mar. 17, 2022).* Defendant found to have consented to a search after … Continue reading
NY Oneida: Order for DNA sample doesn’t require a pending criminal case
A DNA sample can be sought by court order before a criminal case is filed. People v. Forte, 2022 NY Slip Op 22066, 2022 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 873 (Oneida Co. Mar. 9, 2022). The scope and manner of the stop … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Two parking tickets in same day not a 4A violation
Multiple parking tickets in NYC in one day is not an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment. Nor an excessive fine under the Eighth; nor a due process violation under the Fourteenth. Torres v. City of New York, 2022 U.S. … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Telling def to get out of vehicle and sit on curb is seizure
“The Court concludes that the encounter transformed into a seizure only moments later, when Deputy Baptista asked Defendant to step out of the vehicle and have a seat on the curb. Although these requests were phrased as questions, they would … Continue reading
W.D.Wash.: Extensive surveillance of def showed PC
The government’s extensive surveillance evidence of defendant showed probable cause for the warrant. United States v. Alvarez-Quinonez, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26292 (W.D.Wash. Feb. 14, 2022).* Defendant’s claim of racial profiling pleads no facts and is denied. He can, however, … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Govt’s suggestion in briefing in opposition to motion to suppress CI was a witness requires disclosure
The government’s brief in opposition to defendant’s motion to suppress suggests that the CI is a potential witness here, so the government is ordered to disclose his or her ID. Disclosure is enough. The court won’t go so far as … Continue reading
CA5: 17-day delay of package for investigation and SW was still reasonable
This 17-day delay in holding a package for investigation and developing probable cause for a search warrant was not unreasonable. There was reasonable suspicion for the initial detention, and, despite the delay, it was still reasonable. United States v. Martinez, … Continue reading
D.Md.: Six-year delay in getting SW for cell phone unreasonable
Officers had defendant’s cell phone for nearly six years from 2015 to 2020, and he was in custody for much of the time. Searching the cell phone six years after seizure was unreasonable. United States v. Briscoe, 2022 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading