Brown v. Texas Case Brief
Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 99 S.Ct. 2637 (1979)
FACTS: Two officers observed Brown and another man walking away from each other in an alley, in an area known for drug trafficking. The stopped Brown and asked him to identify himself and explain his actions. One officer testified that Brown was stopped because the situation “looked suspicious and we had never seen that subject in that area before.”
Brown was arrested under a Texas statute that made it a crime to refuse to identify oneself, and was eventually convicted. At trial, one of the officers admitted that they only reason Brown was stopped was to learn his identity.
ISSUE: Is a stop for the sole purpose of getting an identification lawful?
HOLDING: No
DISCUSSION: In the absence of any basis for suspecting Brown of misconduct, the balance between the public interest and Brown’s right to personal security and privacy tilts in favor of freedom from police interference. The guarantees of the Fourth Amendment do not allow stopping and demanding identification from an individual without any specific basis for believing he is involved in criminal activity,
As a result the Court held that detaining Brown and requiring him to identify himself “violated the Fourth Amendment because the officers lacked any reasonable suspicion to believe Brown was engaged or had engaged in criminal conduct.”