Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 349

529US1

Unit: $U41

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FLORIDA v. J. L.

Kennedy, J., concurring

indicia of reliability we demand for a report of a person car-
rying a ﬁrearm before the police can constitutionally conduct
a frisk. Nor do we hold that public safety ofﬁcials in quar-
ters where the reasonable expectation of Fourth Amendment
privacy is diminished, such as airports, see Florida v. Rodri-
guez, 469 U. S. 1 (1984) (per curiam), and schools, see New
Jersey v. T. L. O., 469 U. S. 325 (1985), cannot conduct protec-
tive searches on the basis of information insufﬁcient to jus-
tify searches elsewhere.

Finally, the requirement that an anonymous tip bear
standard indicia of reliability in order to justify a stop in no
way diminishes a police ofﬁcer’s prerogative, in accord with
Terry, to conduct a protective search of a person who has
already been legitimately stopped. We speak in today’s de-
cision only of cases in which the ofﬁcer’s authority to make
the initial stop is at issue.
In that context, we hold that
an anonymous tip lacking indicia of reliability of the kind
contemplated in Adams and White does not justify a stop
and frisk whenever and however it alleges the illegal posses-
sion of a ﬁrearm.

The judgment of the Florida Supreme Court is afﬁrmed.

It is so ordered.

Justice Kennedy, with whom The Chief Justice

joins, concurring.

On the record created at the suppression hearing, the
Court’s decision is correct. The Court says all that is neces-
sary to resolve this case, and I join the opinion in all re-
spects.
It might be noted, however, that there are many
indicia of reliability respecting anonymous tips that we have
yet to explore in our cases.

When a police ofﬁcer testiﬁes that a suspect aroused the
ofﬁcer’s suspicion, and so justiﬁes a stop and frisk, the courts
can weigh the ofﬁcer’s credibility and admit evidence seized
pursuant to the frisk even if no one, aside from the ofﬁcer
and defendant themselves, was present or observed the sei-