Isaac Alvarez v. United States

Where there is no specific and articulable reason to objectively believe any occupant of a stopped vehicle is armed, dangerous, or involved in criminal conduct—but simply that the vehicle has potentially committed a non-criminal traffic violation—is an officer’s approach to the vehicle at gunpoint, extraction and frisk of the driver at gunpoint, and (after discovering no weapon) directing him to the patrol car at gunpoint without asking a single investigatory question, permissible under Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968), or do these actions either individually or cumulatively constitute a de facto arrest without probable cause—unjustifiable on an officer safety rationale?