Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 348

529US1

Unit: $U41

[09-26-01 09:10:16] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 529 U. S. 266 (2000)

273

Opinion of the Court

Several Courts of Appeals have held it per se foreseeable
for people carrying signiﬁcant amounts of illegal drugs to be
carrying guns as well. See, e. g., United States v. Sakyi, 160
F. 3d 164, 169 (CA4 1998); United States v. Dean, 59 F. 3d
1479, 1490, n. 20 (CA5 1995); United States v. Odom, 13 F. 3d
949, 959 (CA6 1994); United States v. Martinez, 958 F. 2d
217, 219 (CA8 1992).
If police ofﬁcers may properly conduct
Terry frisks on the basis of bare-boned tips about guns, it
would be reasonable to maintain under the above-cited deci-
sions that the police should similarly have discretion to frisk
based on bare-boned tips about narcotics. As we clariﬁed
when we made indicia of reliability critical in Adams and
White, the Fourth Amendment is not so easily satisﬁed. Cf.
Richards v. Wisconsin, 520 U. S. 385, 393–394 (1997) (reject-
ing a per se exception to the “knock and announce” rule for
narcotics cases partly because “the reasons for creating an
exception in one category [of Fourth Amendment cases] can,
relatively easily, be applied to others,” thus allowing the ex-
ception to swallow the rule).*

The facts of this case do not require us to speculate about
the circumstances under which the danger alleged in an
anonymous tip might be so great as to justify a search even
without a showing of reliability. We do not say, for example,
that a report of a person carrying a bomb need bear the

*At oral argument, petitioner also advanced the position that J. L.’s
youth made the stop and frisk valid, because it is a crime in Florida for
persons under the age of 21 to carry concealed ﬁrearms. See Fla. Stat.
§ 790.01 (1997) (carrying a concealed weapon without a license is a misde-
meanor), § 790.06(2)(b) (only persons aged 21 or older may be licensed to
carry concealed weapons). This contention misses the mark. Even as-
suming that the arresting ofﬁcers could be sure that J. L. was under 21,
they would have had reasonable suspicion that J. L. was engaged in crimi-
nal activity only if they could be conﬁdent that he was carrying a gun in
the ﬁrst place. The mere fact that a tip, if true, would describe illegal
activity does not mean that the police may make a Terry stop without
meeting the reliability requirement, and the fact that J. L. was under 21
in no way made the gun tip more reliable than if he had been an adult.