United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Bowen v. United States, 422 U.S. 916 (1975)

Bowen v. United States

No. 73-648

Argued February 18, 1975

Decided June 30, 1975

422 U.S. 916

Syllabus

The principles of Almeida-Sanchez v. United States, 413 U. S. 266, that the Fourth Amendment prohibits the Border Patrol from using roving patrols to search vehicles, without a warrant or probable cause, at points removed from the border and its functional equivalents, will not be applied retroactively to invalidate searches that occurred prior to the date of that decision. United States v. Peltier, ante, p. 422 U. S. 531. As the Court of Appeals in this case correctly decided that Almeida-Sanchez did not apply retroactively, petitioner is not entitled to the benefit of that court's further but unnecessary ruling that Almeida-Sanchez extended to searches at traffic checkpoints. Pp. 422 U. S. 918-921.

500 F.2d 960, affirmed.

POWELL, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BURGER, C.J., and WHITE, BLACKMUN, and REHNQUIST, JJ., joined. DOUGLAS, J., post, p. 422 U. S. 921, and BRENNAN and MARSHALL, JJ., post, p. 422 U. S. 921, filed dissenting statements. STEWART, J., dissented.

Page 422 U. S. 917