United States v. Hensley, 469 U.S. 221 (1985)

JUSTICE BRENNAN, concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court. With respect to its effect on respondent’s "right . . . to be secure . . . in [his] perso[n]" guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment, the stop in this case although it no doubt seriously infringed upon respondent’s privacy -- lasted a mere matter of moments, see ante at 224-225, before the discovery of the gun ripened what had been merely reasonable suspicion into the full-scale probable cause necessary for an arrest. For circumstances like these, Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968),

defined a special category of Fourth Amendment "seizures" so substantially less intrusive than arrests that the general rule requiring probable cause to make Fourth Amendment "seizures" reasonable could be replaced by a balancing test.

Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 210 (1979). See ante at 228. Such a balancing test is appropriate as long as it is conducted with full regard for the serious privacy interests implicated even by such a relatively non-intrusive stop. See Terry v. Ohio, supra. Of course, in the case of intrusions properly classifiable as full-scale arrests for Fourth Amendment purposes, no such balancing test is needed. Such arrests are governed by the probable cause standard provided by the text of the Fourth Amendment itself.