Atwater v. City of Lago Vista
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Argued December 4, 2000 Decided April 24, 2001
Full case name: Gail Atwater, et al., Petitionors v. City of Lago Vista et al. Citations: 517 U.S., at 818, 517 U.S. 806, 514 U.S. 927, 442 U.S. 200, 208 Prior history: United States District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled for the City, 5th Circuit Court reversed Subsequent history: Nothing
Holding
Police may make a warrantless arrest when someone commits a misdemeanor offense
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority by: Souter Joined by: Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, Rehnquist Dissent by: O'Connor Joined by: Stevens, Ginsburg, Breyer
Laws applied
U.S. Const. Amend. IV

William Rehnquist Chief Justice William Hubbs Rehnquist (born October 1, 1924) is an American jurist and former law clerk and Assistant Attorney General. ... Justice Antonin Scalia Justice Antonin Scalia (born March 11, 1936) has been a U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice since 1986. ... Justice Clarence Thomas Justice Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ... Justice John Paul Stevens Justice John Paul Stevens (born April 20, 1920) is an American jurist who has been a U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice since 1975; he is the oldest justice on the court. ... Justice Sandra Day OConnor Sandra Day OConnor (born March 26, 1930) has been an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1981. ... Justice Anthony Kennedy For other people of the same name, see Anthony Kennedy (disambiguation). ... Justice David Souter Justice David Hackett Souter (born September 17, 1939) has been a US Supreme Court Associate Justice since 1990. ... Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Justice Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg (born March 15, 1933) is a United States jurist. ... Justice Stephen Breyer Justice Stephen Gerald Breyer (born August 15, 1938) has been an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court since 1994. ...

Majority Opinion

In Altwater v. Lago Vista, the Court ruled that a woman's fourth amendment rights were not violated when she was arrested after driving without a seatbelt. They ruled that this did not constitute an "unreasonable... seizure". Amendment IV (the Fourth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. ... A three-point seat belt. ...

"Accordingly, we confirm today what our prior cases have intimated: the standard of probable cause “applie[s] to all arrests, without the need to ‘balance’ the interests and circumstances involved in particular situations.” Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 208 (1979). If an officer has probable cause to believe that an individual has committed even a very minor criminal offense in his presence, he may, without violating the Fourth Amendment, arrest the offender."

The Court concluded that the officer had reasonable suspicion that she committed a crime (and she later admitted that she did) and that the arrest was not an "extraordinary manner, unusually harmful to [her] privacy or … physical interests."

External Links

• Text of the decision from Cornell