How The War On Drugs Transformed U.S. Criminal Law and Procedure

The USSC dealt with this problem in the landmark case of Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968) in the same year of the murder of Martin Luther King and ensuing riots in cities like Detroit and Los Angeles. The case dealt with a police officer in Cleveland, Ohio, who stopped three white men, whom the officer felt were casing a store to pull off a robbery. The court held that police could “stop” or temporarily detain a suspect without probable cause to arrest him, if there was “reasonable suspicion” (a standard of suspicion less

Indeed, as the “war on drugs” heated up, this is what happened. It is well-known…