Lawrence W. Blessinger v. United States

In United States v. Hensley, 469 U.S. 221, 228–29 (1985), the Court held that investigatory stops for completed felonies are permitted under the Fourth Amendment based on “reasonable suspicion.” The Court explicitly reserved on “whether Terry stops to investigate all past crimes, however serious, are permitted.” Id. at 229 (referring to Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968)). Petitioner was detained by a police officer investigating a littering offense—“dumping” yard clippings on vacant, heavily-wooded, private property—a misdemeanor under Florida law. The Eleventh Circuit upheld the Terry stop, placing it in conflict with decisions from other circuits. Compare, e.g., United States v. Roberts, 986 F.2d 1026, 1030 (6th Cir. 1993) (“[P]olice may stop a person to investigate . . . ‘a completed felony,’ but not . . . a completed misdemeanor.”) (quoting Hensley, 469 U.S. at 229), with United States v. Grigg, 498 F.3d 1070, 1081 (9th Cir. 2007) (“We adopt the rule that a reviewing court must consider the nature of the misdemeanor offense in question . . . when balancing the privacy interests at stake against the efficacy of a Terry stop.”). Thus, the question presented is: Whether the Fourth Amendment permits police to detain a suspect under Terry v. Ohio to investigate a completed misdemeanor.