Reasonable Mistake of Law

In 2014, the Court decided Heien v. North Carolina, which held: “A police officer’s reasonable mistake of law gives rise to reasonable suspicion that justifies a traffic stop under the Fourth Amendment.” Judgment was 8-1. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion.

This map goes from Heien back to Brinegar v. United States. This choice of network anchor was based on this quote from Heien: "To be reasonable is not to be perfect, and so the Fourth Amendment allows for some mistakes on the part of government officials, giving them 'fair leeway for enforcing the law in the community’s protection.'Brinegar v. United States, 338 U. S. 160, 176 (1949)."

This network thus features cases that develop the "mistake" concenpt in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. Please note that the embedded map shows the two-degree network using a Spaeth projection. Click the map to view other options.