Larry D. Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada, Humboldt County, et al. (542 U.S. 177)

U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 21, 2004 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)

Citation
542 U.S. 177 · 124 S. Ct. 2451
Decided
June 21, 2004
Term
October Term 2003
Vote
5–4
Majority author
Justice Kennedy
Issue area
Criminal Procedure
Disposition
Affirmed
Outcome
Petitioning party lost
Ideological direction
Conservative

Opinion excerpt

Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court. The petitioner was arrested and convicted for refusing to identify himself during a stop allowed by Terry v. Ohio, 392 U. S. 1 (1968). He challenges his conviction under the Fourth and Fifth- Amendments to the United States Constitution, applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment. I The sheriff’s department in Humboldt County, Nevada, received an afternoon telephone call reporting an assault. The caller reported seeing a man assault a woman in a red and silver GMC truck on Grass Valley Road. Deputy Sheriff Lee Dove was dispatched to investigate. When the officer arrived at the scene, he found the truck parked on the side of the road. A man was standing by the truck, and a young woman was sitting inside it. The officer observed skid marks in the gravel behind the vehicle, leading him to believe it had come to a sudden stop. The officer approached the man and explained that he was investigating a report of a fight. The man appeared to be intoxicated. The officer asked him if he had “any identification on [him],” which we understand as a request to produce a driver’s license or some other form of written identification. The man refused and asked why the officer wanted to see identification. The officer responded that he was conducting an investigation and needed to see some identification. The unidentified man…

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