page_title: United States v. Drayton
section_title: Arrest and trial of Christopher Drayton and Clifton Brown, Jr.
hierarchical_section_title: United States v. Drayton / Arrest and trial of Christopher Drayton and Clifton Brown, Jr.
caption_attribution_description: English: Greyhound Bus Station Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida (cropped version)
context_page_description: United States v. Drayton, 536 U.S. 194, was a case in which the United States Supreme Court clarified the applicability of Fourth Amendment protections to searches and seizures that occur on buses, as well as the function of consent during searches by law enforcement. During a scheduled stop in Tallahassee, Florida, police officers boarded a Greyhound bus as part of a drug interdiction effort and interviewed passengers. After talking to two of the passengers and asking if they could "check [their] person", officers discovered the two passengers had taped several packages of cocaine to their legs. At trial, the passengers argued that officers violated their Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures because the police engaged in coercive behavior and never informed them that their participation in the drug interdiction efforts was voluntary.
  Writing for a majority of the Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy held officers need not personally advise passengers of their right to refuse consent to a search on a bus.
context_section_description: On February 4, 1999, Christopher Drayton and Clifton Brown, Jr. were traveling on a Greyhound bus bound for Detroit, Michigan. When the bus made a planned stop in Tallahassee, Florida, passengers were told to get off the bus so it could be cleaned and refueled. After the passengers re-boarded, the driver allowed Officers Blackburn, Hoover, and Lang of the Tallahassee Police Department to enter the bus "as part of a routine drug and weapons interdiction effort". Although the officers displayed visible badges, they carried concealed weapons and were not in uniform. Upon entering the bus, Officer Hoover knelt on the driver's seat, Officer Blackburn stood at the back of the bus, and Officer Lang walked along the aisle of the bus to talk to passengers. He asked passengers which luggage was theirs and where they were going. None of the officers blocked the aisle or otherwise obstructed the exit, and passengers were free to leave while the officers conducted their investigation. However, the officers did not inform passengers of their right to refuse to cooperate with the investigation.
  Drayton and Brown sat next to each other on the bus, Drayton by the aisle and Brown by the window. When Officer Lang arrived at their row, he identified himself as a police investigator and showed his badge. In a voice "just loud enough" to hear, he said he was a police officer "conducting bus interdiction [sic], attempting to deter drugs and illegal weapons being transported on the bus". When Lang asked Drayton and Brown if they had any luggage on the bus, they both pointed to the same green bag on the overhead luggage rack. Lang asked, "[d]o you mind if I check it?", and Brown replied, "[g]o ahead". The officers inspected the bag and discovered no contraband inside.
  Officer Lang observed that Drayton and Brown were wearing "heavy jackets and baggy pants", despite warm weather that day. Lang suspected Brown and Drayton might have been using their baggy clothing to conceal weapons or drugs, so he asked Brown, "[d]o you mind if I check your person?" Brown responded, "[s]ure", leaned up in his seat, removed a cellular phone from his pocket, and opened his jacket. Lang patted down the outside of his clothing and felt small packages "similar to drug packages detected on other occasions". Officer Lang then arrested Brown, handcuffed him, and Officer Hoover walked him off the bus. Lang then asked Drayton, "[m]ind if I check you?", to which Drayton responded "by lifting his hands about eight inches from his legs". Lang detected similar objects during a pat down of Drayton's legs, placed him under arrest, and escorted him off the bus. A further search determined that Brown had duct-taped three bundles containing 483 grams of cocaine between several layers of boxer shorts, and Drayton had duct-taped two bundles between several layers of boxer shorts containing 295 grams of cocaine.
caption: The Tallahassee, Florida Greyhound station, where police inspected the bus on which Drayton and Brown were traveling.
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