Whren And Brown Case Study

Facts of the Case
In the early hours of the night on June 1993, Whren and Brown were driving the Pathfinder truck in a high drug region. In the same locale, two plainclothes police officers with unmarked police car were mandated with the task to patrol the area in the District of Columbia. It’s at this juncture that the police officers observed that the Pathfinder truck in which Whren and Brown were driving had stopped at a crossing stop sign for an extraordinarily long time (Whren v the United States, 1996). Without even signaling, Whren turned right sharply and sped off on realizing that the police officers had made a U-turn towards them. Similarly, as this was in violation of the traffic rules the police officers raced after them and stopped them at the side of the road at a red light. Notwithstanding, Whren was found to hold two plastic bags of what seemed like crack cocaine in his hand when the police came to the vehicle. Whren and Brown were thus incarcerated on federal drug charges. Before the trial, counsel for the defense progressed to overturn the possession of drug evidence. They contended that the police were in violation of the fourth amendment of the constitution as the police had wrongly used the pretext of a traffic stop to investigate possible drug crimes

Thus, though the police initial intent was in violation of traffic rules, questions had to arise when they apprehended Whren and Brown on other drug-related charges an otherwise violation of the fourth amendment. The fourth amendment would prohibit against unreasonable seizure unless the police were motivated by the need to enforce the law. Indeed, the court still had to try and prove whether the police conduct deviated from the standard police practices. Lastly, it was left to the court to show whether the police had the right to arrest the two men on drug-related charges rather than the traffic violation (Whren v United States,