In 1963, Terry and two other men were observed to be walking back and forth peering into a store window by a plain clothes policeman who suspected they may be planning a crime. The officer stopped and frisked the men, finding weapons on two of them. Terry was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon and sentenced to three years in jail.

Was this search and seizure a violation of the Fourth Amendment?
In 1968, the US Supreme Court decided, in the case Terry v. Ohio, that police using a “stop and frisk” procedure are within constitutional bounds as officers of the law.

UW School of Law Dean Tamara Lawson hosted an online discussion with William S. Boyd School of Law at UNLV Professor Frank Rudy Cooper in which the two legal scholars—and AALS Clyde Ferguson Award winners (’23 and ’24 respectively)—compared notes on Terry v. Ohio. Their collegiality, expertise in criminal law and familiarity with the long-reaching effects of the court’s decision in this case make for a highly engaging thought piece that is as warm as it is erudite.