Edward Morgan, Jr. v. United States

No sight of drugs. No sight of money. All the citizen saw was an exchange of small, unidentified objects that the citizen “believed ” was a drug transaction. Do we now suspend the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures and uphold Terry stops1 based on citizens’ unsupported beliefs?

No, the majority opinion says; there is one critical fact that establishes the requisite reasonable articulable suspicion2 to allow the police to lawfully stop Mr. Morgan on the street and investigate whether he was dealing drugs: The citizen told the police that Mr. Morgan…