State v. McManus

In my view, the majority opinion is an example of the maxim that hard cases sometimes make bad law. I cannot help but feel that the result in this case has been influenced by the fact that upon the search of defendant’s ear the officers found no more than one germinant seed of marijuana. Would the majority have reached the same result if, instead, the officers had found 10 pounds of uncut heroin or a stolen gun used in an unsolved murder, with identifiable fingerprints ?

Or what if, during the days of prohibition, an officer saw a man “reputed” to be the local bootlegger handing “what appeared…