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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)
--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: Reasonableness
CA11: Reasonableness doesn’t require a stop as soon as RS develops
An officer who observed a traffic offense and waited for defendant to drive another five blocks could reasonably still stop the car. “Although the officers did not initiate the traffic stop for seven minutes, and did not pull Brown over … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: While a mistaken identity arrest can still be reasonable, this was based on hunch, or race, and was unreasonable
A mistaken identity arrest can still be reasonable. This one, however, clearly isn’t. It “was, at best, a hunch and, at worst, a hunch based on the race of the identified man.” United States v. Taylor, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA2: The officer’s perceptions were reasonable that entry into defendant’s backyard was necessary
“Nor can we say that Galligan’s enforcement action was clearly unlawful. The undisputed facts of this case demonstrate that Plaintiffs kept a variety of unusual objects in their backyard, causing it to resemble a junkyard. The question is not whether … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Reasonableness of a parole search can include considering def’s criminal record
Knights on parole and probation searches is a reasonableness on the totality test, and this measures up. Defendant’s criminal record is a relevant factor for the officers to consider. United States v. Sharp, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18768 (N.D. Ohio … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: PC was shown, but not nexus, and GFE does not apply
The affidavit showed probable cause, but it completely failed to show nexus to defendant’s place. It was so deficient in the showing of nexus that the good faith exception cannot apply. United States v. King, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18956 … Continue reading
D.Mass.: 15 month delay in getting SW for cell phone seized with PC was unreasonable, but GFE applies
The 15-month delay between seizure of a cell phone with probable cause is was unreasonable, applying United States v. Smith, 967 F.3d 198, 202 (2d Cir. 2020). However, the court finds that the good faith exception applies, and the court … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Stop of out-of-state vehicle for expired tags objectively reasonable despite Executive Order in other state extending time because of Covid
Defendant’s stop for expired tags in another state was objectively reasonable because the officer couldn’t have known that there was a Covid executive order extending the time to renew vehicle licenses in the other state. Maybe in the officer’s own … Continue reading
CA6: CoA denied for federal defense counsel not pursuing claim SW violated state law
CoA denied for an ineffective assistance of counsel claim that defense counsel didn’t investigate the claim that the state court search warrant hadn’t been properly issued and then filed and was thus invalid. It wouldn’t be because there was essentially … Continue reading
CA8: Detention of ptf for videoing outside of police station was reasonable given the officers’ concerns about other crimes and vandalism there
Plaintiff’s detention outside the police station for engaging in confrontational behavior went beyond any constitutionally protected recording activity. Defendants’ actions, when combined with their knowledge of vehicles being vandalized and stolen in the area and their personal knowledge that a … Continue reading
NC: Mere visitor on the premises shouldn’t have been searched without articulatable RS
Defendant was a visitor on the premises when a search warrant was executed. A full search of his person was unreasonable because there were no facts shown justifying a belief he was armed or dangerous. The dissents view would hollow … Continue reading
OH12: RS for stop after drugs found in 70 other traffic stops leaving suspected drug house
Suppose just for the sake of argument a law enforcement officer conducts 70 potentially legal stops of cars leaving a drug house but then finds drugs in the car. Assume further there was no reasonable suspicion for a detention or … Continue reading
D.Md.: Taking driver’s cell phone with DL during traffic stop unreasonably extended stop and violated 4A
Taking defendant’s cell phone with DL during a traffic stop unreasonably extended the stop and was in excess of the purpose of a traffic stop. United States v. Morganstern, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 240746 (D. Me. Dec. 22, 2020). A … Continue reading
ND: While cracked windshield isn’t violation of state law, it wasn’t unreasonable for officer to conclude it was
A cracked windshield on the passenger side is not a violation of state law, but it was not unreasonable for the officer to conclude that it was. Therefore, the stop was not unreasonable. State v. Bolme, 2020 ND 255, 2020 … Continue reading
IN: Admin. inspector’s entry onto yard for housing code violation didn’t violate 4A
A city inspector followed state statute and entered upon a homeowner’s property after he saw a deck and above ground pool being built in violation of the local housing code. The entry was reasonable and did not require a administrative … Continue reading
MA: Home confinement and GPS monitoring as a condition of release pending sentencing was reasonable
Home confinement after conviction but pending a motion for new trial was not an unreasonable seizure. It was discretionary on conviction. GPS monitoring as well was a search under Grady, but, on a balancing of interests, it was reasonable on … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: “Least intrusive means” for a search isn’t the 4A question; reasonableness is.
“Least intrusive means” for a search isn’t the Fourth Amendment question—reasonableness is. Anyone can imagine a lesser intrusive measure and that would lead to choas. United States v. Crenshaw, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 220617 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 23, 2020):
NY: Stop for center brake light being out was reasonable basis under statute
The trial court’s grant of the motion to suppress was error. The officer’s reading of the functioning brake light statute was reasonable that the center light being out was cause for a stop. People v. Pena, 2020 NY Slip Op … Continue reading
WV: Officer’s subjective belief in his ability to arrest DUIs statewide was unreasonable under Heien
“However, Heien does offer some insight into the type of ‘mistake’ which may provide relief-the area upon which the circuit court below focused. The Court concluded that ‘[t]he Fourth Amendment tolerates only reasonable mistakes, and those mistakes-whether of fact or … Continue reading