Whren v. United States
| Whren v. United States | |
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| Argued April 17, 1996 Decided June 10, 1996 |
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| Full case name | Michael A. Whren and James L. Brown, Petitioners, v. United States |
| Citations | 517 U.S. 806 (more)
116 S.Ct. 1769; 135 L.Ed.2d 89
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| Prior history | Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia |
| Subsequent history | None |
| Holding | |
| Any traffic offense committed by a driver is a legitimate legal basis for a traffic stop. Trial court and D.C. Circuit court affirmed. | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Scalia, joined by unanimous |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. IV | |
Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (1996), was a unanimous United States Supreme Court decision that "declared that any traffic offense committed by a driver was a legitimate legal basis for a stop."
Fully known as Michael A. Whren and James L. Brown, Petitioners, v. United States, the case's Supreme Court syllabus states that the court held that "the temporary detention of a motorist upon probable cause to believe that he has violated the traffic laws does not violate the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable seizures, even if a reasonable officer would not have stopped the motorist absent some additional law enforcement objective." In other words, it does not matter if the traffic stop was a set up for a drug bust, so long as there was independent justification for the stop.
A main concern with this case is how the police interact with citizens that can also be seen as racial profiling and how a citizen is or is not protected by the Fourth Amendment. Both petitioners believe that the traffic stop did not warrant a search of their vehicle and their arrest. Similar to the complaints and outrage towards New York City’s Stop and Frisk program, many deliberate that the ruling in Whren v. United States will lead to an increase in racial profiling towards young African American males.
On June 10, 1993, Michael Whren and James L. Brown were driving around Washington D.C. in an SUV. Brown was the driver, and Whren sat in the passenger seat. They were driving in what was considered a “high drug area”.
Meanwhile, two officers dressed in plainclothes were patrolling the area in an unmarked car. They were members of the District of Columbia’s Vice Squad and were assigned to the area; they noticed the suspicious vehicle pulled over at a stop sign for about 20 seconds. The passenger was distracting the driver. As the officers approached the vehicle, the vehicle turned at an “unreasonable” speed without using their turning signal. For the traffic violation, the officers pulled over Whren and Brown.
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