Rights v. Utility And The Fourth Amendment

Connecticut public defender and blogger Gideon and I had a spirited exchange the other week about the Connecticut Supreme Court’s recent decision in State v. Kelly, which concerned the legality of a warrantless Terry stop (and resultant arrest) of a person whom the police had no reason to suspect of having done anything wrong, must less anything criminal.  So why did the Court hold that the detention and subsequent arrest of this person was constitutional?  Because he happened to be walking down the street with someone the police reasonably suspected of a crime.  A clearer case of “guilt by association” would be hard to find.

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