The Supreme Court case I will be writing about is Terry v. Ohio. The case happened in 1968. The case is also known as the stop and frisk case. The case is about the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment protects people from government seizures and searches. A police officer saw a couple of men acting suspiciously outside a store in Ohio. The officer found weapons on the men. One of the men, named John Terry, argued the stop and search violated their rights against unreasonable searches and seizures. The Supreme Court said that the stop and frisk conducted by the police officer was constitutional under the Fourth Amendment. The courts that heard this case before the U.S. The Supreme Court is the Cleveland Municipal Court, the …show more content…
The arguments for Terry were Fourth Amendment violation, Prejudicial Profiling, and Lack of Specificity in Suspicion. The arguments for the officer were Limited Intrusion, Reasonable Suspicion, and Public Protection. Terry wanted to challenge the officer and say that the search was unconstitutional. Terry wanted the court to favor him and say that the officer violated his Fourth Amendment rights. The decision was that the search and seizure by the officer was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court vote in the majority was an 8-1 decision. The date for the majority decision was June 10, 1968. The justices who voted for the majority were Earl Warren, Hugo Black, John Harlan, William Brennan, Potter Stewart, Byron White, Abe Fortas, and Thurgood Marshall. Earl Warren wrote the majority decision. The majority opinion was that police officers can stop and frisk suspicious individuals. Officers may take steps to ensure safety. The search by the officer was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. Concurrent opinions were written by Hugo Black, John Harlan, and Byron White. The concurrent opinions are different from the majority opinion because the Supreme Court’s vote in the majority was 8-1. William Douglas wrote the opinion