The Supreme Court is hearing a case tomorrow that could do away with RAS (Reasonable Articulable Suspicion) in Terry stops. If they rule along with the 38 states who are filing amicus briefs, then every person in a car in a traffic stop could be removed from the vehicle and frisked without any justification at all. The CJLF is arguing for a blanket rule permitting the search of all passengers in order to take "complete command" at traffic stops. See page 10-11 of their amicus brief. http://www.cjlf.org/briefs/JohnsonL.pdf
No, Terry stops are legal. What they're considering getting rid of is the need for the officer to articulate suspicion of a specific crime committed or about to be committed by the persons in the car and allowing them to frisk the occupants for weapons solely for the purpose of ensuring they do not have weapons to harm the officer.
have any of you guys every been pulled over and your gun was seen by the cop or you told him about it? how did they react?
This won't effect me personally, because the first thing I do when I get pulled over is hand them my CHL and tell them where the guns/weapons are......but I don't think they should be able to pull your passengers out and search them just because you were going a few miles over the speed limit without having a good reason.
I haven't heard of a Terry Stop, but I do know that a Terry "Pat-down" Search is used just to search for weapons. During the search the officer is only looking for weapons and cannot seize drugs unless the officer immediately identifies the object.
They thoughtfully always seem to ask if I have any weapons in the vehicle "that they need to worry about" or that they "should be aware of".
Same thing, the frisk is part of the stop. It's called a stop because the officer is detaining you without arresting you.
Correct, and this ruling will be to decide if they even need RAS to terry occupants of a vehicle other than the driver.
My statement just meant that an officer is not allowed to manipulate the object during a terry search. For instance, if I was conducting a terry search on you and you had something that I immediately realized was a meth pipe, I would be able to seize the meth pipe. If I did not immediately recognize the object, then I would not be able to seize it because a terry search is only for weapons.
I got patted down once. They took my keys, phone, etc out of my pocket. They set them on the hood of my car and started talking to me. I said "Do you want my pocket knife too? Right front pocket." "Oh. Yeah, thanks."