Law Commons^™

An Empirical Assessment Of Pretextual Stops And Racial Profiling, Stephen Rushin

Faculty Publications & Other Works

This Article empirically illustrates that legal doctrines permitting police officers to engage in pretextual traffic stops may contribute to an increase in racial profiling. In 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Whren v. United States that pretextual traffic stops do not violate the Fourth Amendment. As long as police officers identify an objective violation of a traffic law, they may lawfully stop a motorist--even if their actual intention is to use the stop to investigate a hunch that by itself does not amount to probable cause or reasonable suspicion.

Scholars and civil rights activists have sharply criticized Whren, …