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CA6: "Frisk" of a suspected bank robber's duffle bag for the gun they reasonably believed he had was reasonable

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Frisking defendant’s duffle bag that was partly unzipped for a weapon that the officers reasonably believed was in there was reasonable. He was wanted for bank robbery, and there was reason to believe he was armed. United States v. Walker, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 16684, 2010 FED App. 0244P (6th Cir. August 12, 2010): The directive to steer clear of “unreasonable” searches cannot be reduced to a “frisk first” or any other one-size-fits-all command, which is presumably why courts of appeals have declined to adopt a “frisk first” requirement for Terry searches. See, e.g., United States v. Shranklen, 315 F.3d 959, 963-64 (8th Cir. 2003); United States v. Thomson, 354 F.3d 1197, 1200-01 (10th Cir. 2003); United States v...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on August 15, 2010 (boomark / email).