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- CA6: State officer’s arrest for violation of federal MJ law likely wouldn’t violate 4A
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- VI: Smell of MJ no longer PC in VI since legalization
- Reason: 3 Charlotte Cops Resign After Group Chat Reveals Competition To Arrest the Most Black People
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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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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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Congressional Research Service:
--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
GA: 536 day delay in getting SW for cell phone was unreasonable
Defendant’s cell phone was lawfully seized but apparently forgotten about. In preparation of the case, an assistant prosecutor found out about it and sought a search warrant, 536 days after seizure. The delay was unreasonable, and the phone’s contents are … Continue reading
OH8: Stop for flashing high beams was mistake of law and objectively reasonable under Heien
The state concedes that one flashing his high beams for one second twice 14 seconds apart at a vehicle in front of him for not moving is not a violation of the statute for unnecessarily driving on high beams. Nevertheless, … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Use of military weaponry (flash bang) in a residential neighborhood is LEO discretion under FTCA
The choice of law enforcement officers to use flash bang devices in a residential neighborhood at 4 a.m. is discretionary with the police and not unreasonable as a matter of law: “weighing of such risks against the necessity of using … 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.Wash.: 14 month delay in searching seized cell phone was reasonable because it wouldn’t have been returned anyway
A 14 month delay between seizure and search of defendant’s cell phone was not unreasonable because the phone would not have been returned to defendant in any event. Plus, he was in jail and couldn’t possess it. United States v. … Continue reading
CA7: State law violation for tracking warrant not a 4A violation
Defendant was tracked by a state issued tracking warrant. A state imposed limitation on the tracking warrant was arguably violated, but that doesn’t by any means mean that the Fourth Amendment was violated when his case was brought in federal … Continue reading
OH5: State’s claim of reasonable mistake of fact rejected: statute not ambiguous and not violated
The state’s claim of a Heien-type mistake of law fails. The statute is not ambiguous, and the defendant didn’t violate it. State v. Trout, 2019 Ohio ___, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 124 (5th Dist. Jan. 15, 2019). Defendant operated a … Continue reading
CA2: Remand required for determination for reason for delay in getting computer SW
Defendant was found passed out in a car on a rural road with the car in gear and the engine running. A tablet was on the seat. Searching the car for information about him, an image of child pornography was … Continue reading
ABAJ: Law requiring Airbnb to turn over detailed data likely violates Fourth Amendment, judge says
ABAJ: Law requiring Airbnb to turn over detailed data likely violates Fourth Amendment, judge says by Debra Cassens Weiss:
Lawfare: Fourth Amendment Reasonableness After Carpenter v. United States
Lawfare: Fourth Amendment Reasonableness After Carpenter v. United States by Alan Z. Rozenshtein.
W.D.N.Y.: Alleged state procedural errors in issuing SW is irrelevant under 4A in federal court
“As a threshold matter, defendant Nelson’s objection that the search warrant was per se invalid because no verbatim record of the informant’s testimony as required by N.Y.C.P.L. § 690.36 was preserved is mistaken. Whether the search warrant for the defendant’s … Continue reading
New law review article: Fourth Amendment Reasonableness After Carpenter
This brief essay is great insight into arguing the next steps of Carpenter, reasonableness, property rights, and whether the reasonable expectation of privacy test will be changed. We recommend you read all you can about Carpenter because the right reasonableness … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Court doesn’t find running away from a wrecked car was unequivocally an abandonment
Defendant was an accused bootlegger who knew he was being tailed and he wrecked his car and ran away. The court doesn’t find this to be unequivocally an abandonment because he knew he was being followed but not necessarily by … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: A reasonable but mistaken belief defendant’s car was just involved in a burglary justified its stop
A reasonable but mistaken belief defendant’s car was just involved in a burglary justified its stop. United States v. Morgan, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208715 (W.D. Mo. Oct. 31, 2018), adopted, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207735 (W.D. Mo. Dec. 10, … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Surreptitiously made recording invalid by Georgia statute is still admissible in federal court
A surreptitiously made recording invalid by Georgia statute is still admissible in federal court. United States v. Kilpatrick, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208799 (N.D. Ga. Nov. 1, 2018), adopted, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208223 (N.D. Ga. Dec. 10, 2018). At … Continue reading
D.Ore.: Where the detention was with RS, the fact it took an hour to get a free drug dog there wasn’t unreasonable
The officer had reasonable suspicion for detention for the dog sniff. Then it took an hour to get a drug dog there because the police were busy that night. It was not unreasonable on the totality. United States v. Krumwiede, … Continue reading
KS: State law not ambiguous and Heien doesn’t make this reasonable
Kansas law was settled a decade before, so the state can’t claim that the officer’s allegedly reasonable mistake of law makes this stop reasonable under Heien. State v. Lees, 2018 Kan. App. LEXIS 64 (Nov. 16, 2018):
CA7: Using several garage door openers in def’s vehicle to locate his stash house was a reasonable search
Defendant’s vehicle was stopped and several garage door openers were found. Using them to try to find defendant’s stash house was a search and it was reasonable, although close to the edge. United States v. Correa, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Stop of wrong man on mistaken identity was objectively reasonable
Officers approached the defendant reasonably believing he was somebody else, and he ran. When they finally caught him and rolled him over, they realized they had the wrong person. Nevertheless, the stop was objectively reasonable despite mistaken identity. United States … Continue reading
MA: Delay in searching cell phones lawfully seized wasn’t unreasonable
There was evidence defendants coordinated their actions while in separate cars, and that provided a strong inference they were in communication by cell phone, thus providing probable cause to search them. Police promptly seized the phones and then obtained search … Continue reading