State of Indiana v. Michael E. Cunningham

In my view the State has failed to establish Cunningham’s purported consent to the pat-down was constitutionally valid. Therefore I respectfully dissent.

The Fourth Amendment requires officers to have more than an “inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or ‘hunch’ ” that the person stopped is armed and dangerous in order to justify a pat-down search. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 27, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). The requirement that an officer has reasonable suspicion to search an individual in a vehicle not only applies to the driver but extends to protect passengers as well. Arizona…