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9.2: United States v. Martinez - Fuerte

  • Page ID
    54416
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    PETITIONER                                                                                 RESPONDENT

    United States                                                                              Martinez-Fuerte

    DOCKET NO.                                                                                  DECIDED BY

    74 - 1560                                                                                    Burger Court

    LOWER COURT

    United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

    CITATION

    428 US 543 (1976)

    ARGUED

    Apr 26, 1976

    DECIDED

    Jul 6, 1976

    ADVOCATES

    Ballard Bennett for petitioner in No. 75-5387, by Mark L

    Mark L. Evans

    Charles M. Sevilla for respondent in No. 75-1560

    Facts of the case

    Martinez-Fuerte and others were charged with transporting illegal Mexican aliens. They were stopped at a routine fixed checkpoint for brief questioning of the vehicle's occupants on a major highway not far from the Mexican border.

    Question

    Do such stops violate the Fourth Amendment's proscription against unreasonable searches and seizures?

    Conclusion

    7 -2 Decision Majority Opinion By Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

    FOR AGAINST

    Stevens

    Ginsburg

    Souter

    Scalia

    Thomas

    Breyer

    Kennedy

    Roberts

    Alito

    No, because if there is a reasonable collective suspicion, then individuals can be searched in the interest of public safety. Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., writing for the 7-to-2 majority, said: "The defendants note correctly that to accommodate public and private interests some quantum of individualized suspicion is usually a prerequisite to a constitutional search or seizure.... But the Fourth Amendment imposes no irreducible requirement of such suspicion."

    Contributors and Attributions


    This page titled 9.2: United States v. Martinez - Fuerte is shared under a CC BY license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Larry Alvarez.

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