Policing the Fourth Amendment: The Constitutionality of Warrantless Investigatory Stops for Past Misdemeanors

In the 1985 case of United States v. Hensley, the Supreme Court ruled that the Fourth Amendment permits police officers to perform warrantless investigatory stops for completed felonies. However, Hensley explicitly declined to address whether the Fourth Amendment allows such stops to investigate suspicion of completed misdemeanors. Since then, courts have ruled inconsistently on this issue, creating uncertainty in this important area of search and seizure law. This Note attempts to settle this uncertainty by examining the Fourth Amendment’s text, history, and jurisprudence. It argues that warrantless stops to investigate completed misdemeanors are constitutional when the underlying crime presents an ongoing danger.