September 24, 2024 10:42AM # *Cooper v. United States* Brief: Terry Frisks Are Unconstitutional By [Clark Neily](https://www.cato.org/people/clark-neily) --- SHARE Listen to this article Generated with [ ElevenLabs](https://elevenlabs.io/) AI technology. Loading the [Elevenlabs Text to Speech](https://elevenlabs.io/text-to-speech) AudioNative Player... ![police](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/2024-05/police.jpg?itok=yVcoqIno) One of the US Supreme Court’s most significant Fourth Amendment cases was 1968’s [*Terry v. Ohio*](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/392/1/). In Terry, the court held that a police officer can frisk people based on reasonable suspicion that they are involved in a crime and have a weapon. [Petitioner Nathan Cooper](https://www.cato.org/legal-briefs/cooper-v-united-states) was subjected to a Terry frisk in January 2022 after reports that he was involved in a dispute at his Florida workplace. He is asking the [Supreme Court to revisit the Terry decision](https://www.cato.org/legal-briefs/cooper-v-united-states). Cato filed an [*amicus brief*](https://www.cato.org/legal-briefs/cooper-v-united-states) asking the Supreme Court to grant the petition and end the practice of Terry frisks. Under the common law and at the time of the American Founding, a Terry frisk would have qualified as the seizure of a person. But a person could only lawfully be seized based on probable cause—a higher standard than reasonable suspicion. Overruling Terry’s authorization of frisks would be a long-overdue course correction that would strengthen the legitimacy of the Supreme Court’s originalist approach to law. The court should grant Cooper’s petition and restore a critical protection enacted by the people Justice Scalia once referred to as the “fiercely proud men who adopted our Fourth Amendment.” ##### Related Tags [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Criminal Justice](https://www.cato.org/criminal-justice) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).