United States v. Carlton A. Reid

Opinion for the Court filed by Chief Judge MIKVA.

Dissenting opinion filed by Circuit Judge WALD.

MIKVA, Chief Judge:

This troubling case requires the court to examine the bounds of Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), and its considerable progeny. Terry allowed the police to “frisk” a suspect for weapons when they stopped someone and had reason to believe that they were dealing with a possibly armed person. While Terry only analyzed the “frisk,” it implicitly assumed the validity of the stop itself when there was a similar reasonable belief that a crime had been or…