United States v. Cortez

We granted certiorari, 447 U. S. 904, to consider whether objective facts and circumstantial' evidence suggesting that a particular vehicle is involved in criminal activity may pro*413vide a sufficient basis to justify an investigative stop of that vehicle.

I

Late in 1976, Border Patrol officers patrolling a sparsely populated section of southern central Arizona found human footprints in the desert. In time, other sets of similar footprints were discovered in the same area. Prom these sets of footprints, it was deduced that, on a number of occasions, groups of from 8 to 20 persons had walked north…