Court Opinion

ID: 9431605
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:32:42.712077+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:28.406105
License: Public Domain

Justice Stevens,
with whom Justice Brennan, Justice Marshall, and Justice BLACKMUNjoin, concurring in the judgment.
The Court is unquestionably correct in concluding that respondents’ use of a roadblock to stop Brower’s car constituted a seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. I therefore concur in its judgment. I do not, however, join its opinion because its dicta seem designed to decide a number of cases not before the Court and to establish the proposition that “[violation of the Fourth Amendment requires an intentional acquisition of physical control.” Ante, at 596.
The intentional acquisition of physical control of something is no doubt a characteristic of the typical seizure, but I am not entirely sure that it is an essential element of every seizure or that this formulation is particularly helpful in deciding close cases. The Court suggests that the test it articulates does not turn on the subjective intent of the officer. Ante, at 598. This, of course, not only comports with the recent trend in our cases, see, e. g., Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U. S. 800, 815-819 (1982); United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U. S. 544, 554, n. 6 (1980) (opinion of Stewart, J.), but also makes perfect sense. No one would suggest that the Fourth Amendment provides no protection against a police officer who is too drunk to act intentionally, yet who appears in uniform brandishing a weapon in a threatening manner. Alternatively, however, the concept of objective intent, at least in the vast majority of cases, adds little to the well-established rule that “a person has been ‘seized’ within the meáning of the Fourth Amendment only if, in view of all of the circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave.” Id., at 554 *601(opinion of Stewart, J.); see also INS v. Delgado, 466 U. S. 210, 215 (1984).
There may be a case that someday comes before this Court in which the concept of intent is useful in applying the Fourth Amendment. What is extraordinary about the Court’s discussion of the intent requirement in this case is that there is no dispute that the roadblock was intended to stop the decedent. Decision in the case before us is thus not advanced by pursuing a hypothetical inquiry concerning whether an unintentional act might also violate the Fourth Amendment. Rather, as explained in Judge Pregerson’s dissent in the Court of Appeals, this case is plainly controlled by our decision in Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U. S. 1 (1985). 817 F. 2d 540, 548 (CA9 1987) (opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part). In that case, we held that “there can be no question that apprehension by the use of deadly force is a seizure subject to the reasonableness requirement of the Fourth Amendment.” 471 U. S., at 7. Because it was undisputed that the police officer acted intentionally, we did not discuss the hypothetical case of an unintentional seizure. I would exercise the same restraint here.
I am in full accord with Judge Pregerson’s dissenting opinion, and, for the reasons stated in his opinion, I join the Court’s judgment.