officer of the peace

On October 29, 1958, at approximately 5:45 a.m., thirteen Chicago police officers entered the apartment of James Monroe and his family without a search warrant or arrest warrant. The officers roused the Monroes from bed using flashlights and forced them at gunpoint to stand naked in the living room while ransacking every room, emptying drawers, and ripping mattress covers. Detective Pape struck Mr. Monroe several times with his flashlight and called him "nigger" and "black boy." Other officers hit and kicked several of the children and pushed them to the floor. Mr. Monroe was then taken to the police station and detained on open charges for ten hours. During this period he was interrogated about a murder, exhibited in lineups, and not permitted to call his family or attorney, although he was not brought before a magistrate despite their availability. He was released without any criminal charges being filed against him. The complaint alleged that these actions occurred under color of the statutes, ordinances, regulations, customs, and usages of Illinois and Chicago, and that the City had no rules or controls over its police officers, permitting them to act without restraint. The Monroes claimed deprivations of rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments and sought compensatory and punitive damages from the officers and the City. The district court dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari to review the judgment.

In February 1968, Lloyd Powell was arrested in Henderson, Nevada, for violating a local vagrancy ordinance. During a search incident to the arrest, officers discovered a .38-caliber revolver. Powell was extradited to California and convicted of second-degree murder in the Superior Court of San Bernardino County. The trial court rejected Powell's contention that testimony by the Henderson police officer as to the search and the discovery of the revolver should have been excluded because the vagrancy ordinance was unconstitutional. In October 1969, the conviction was affirmed by a California District Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court of California denied Powell's petition for habeas corpus relief. In August 1971 Powell filed an amended petition for a writ of federal habeas corpus under 28 U. S. C. § 2254 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The district court denied relief. In December 1974, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed. Separately, on August 17, 1970, Omaha police received a telephone call that a woman had been heard screaming at 2867 Ohio Street. As one of the officers sent to that address examined a suitcase lying in the doorway, it exploded, killing him instantly. By August 22 the investigation of the murder centered on Duane Peak, a 15-year-old member of the National Committee to Combat Fascism, and that afternoon a warrant was issued for Peak's arrest. The investigation also focused on other known members of the NCCF, including Rice. While some officers remained to watch the premises, a warrant was obtained to search for explosives and illegal weapons believed to be in Rice's possession. Peak was not in the house, but upon entering the police discovered, in plain view, dynamite, blasting caps, and other materials useful in the construction of explosive devices. Rice was tried for first-degree murder in the District Court of Douglas County. As corroborative evidence the State introduced items seized during the search, as well as the results of the chemical analysis of Rice's clothing. The court denied Rice's motion to suppress this evidence. On appeal the Supreme Court of Nebraska affirmed the conviction, holding that the search of Rice's home had been pursuant to a valid search warrant. In September 1972 Rice filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for Nebraska. The District Court concluded that the search warrant was invalid, as the supporting affidavit was defective under Spinelli v. United States, 393 U. S. 410 (1969), and Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U. S. 108 (1964). The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed, substantially for the reasons stated by the District Court. Petitioners Stone and Wolff, the wardens of the respective state prisons where Powell and Rice are incarcerated, petitioned for review of these decisions. We granted their petitions for certiorari.

In 1992 the Chicago City Council enacted the Gang Congregation Ordinance after hearings revealing that gang members intimidated residents by loitering in public places. The ordinance made it unlawful for any person to loiter in a public place with one or more persons knowing that at least one of those persons was a criminal street gang member. The ordinance defined loitering as remaining in any one place with no apparent purpose. It required a police officer who reasonably believed a person to be a gang member loitering with others to order the entire group to disperse, and failure to obey the order was punishable by a fine of up to $500, imprisonment for not more than six months, or up to 120 hours of community service. Two months after enactment the Chicago Police Department issued General Order 92-4 to provide guidelines to govern its enforcement. The order confined arrest authority to members of the Gang Crime Section and other designated officers, established criteria for identifying street gangs and membership, and directed district commanders to designate enforcement areas where gang presence had a demonstrable effect on law-abiding persons. Those designated areas were not released to the public. During the three years the ordinance was enforced, officers issued more than 89,000 dispersal orders and arrested more than 42,000 people. Respondent Jesus Morales and other individuals were charged with violating the ordinance. Trial courts divided on its constitutionality, with some judges upholding it while eleven others ruled it invalid. The Illinois Appellate Court consolidated the cases, affirmed the invalidations, and reversed convictions in the remaining matters. The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed, and the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.

On May 3, 1978, the Bloomingdale, Illinois, Police Department received an anonymous handwritten letter alleging that Lance and Susan Gates were selling drugs from their home at 37 North Ridgeway Avenue in Bloomingdale. The letter stated that Susan Gates had driven their car with Illinois license plate 1-366-497 to Florida on May 2, 1978, that Lance Gates had flown to Florida a few days earlier to drive the car back with over $100,000 worth of drugs in the trunk, that the couple kept over $100,000 worth of drugs in their basement, and that they bragged about profits from their illegal business while maintaining a modus operandi of drug purchases in Florida. Detective Mader of the Bloomingdale Police Department investigated the tip by confirming Lance Gates's address from a telephone book and verifying that the license plate number belonged to him. Mader learned from a confidential source and police records that Lance Gates had a reputation for narcotics trafficking and had been arrested in 1971 for marijuana possession. The police also confirmed through the Drug Enforcement Administration and airline records that Lance Gates had flown to West Palm Beach, Florida, on May 5, 1978, checked into a motel room registered under his wife's maiden name, and that the couple had driven north together the next morning in a Mercury station wagon bearing the reported license plates. On May 5, 1978, Detective Mader submitted an affidavit containing the anonymous letter and the results of the investigation to an Illinois Circuit Court judge, who issued a search warrant for the Gateses' residence and automobile. On May 7, 1978, after the Gateses returned to Bloomingdale following a 22-hour drive from Florida, officers executed the warrant and seized approximately 350 pounds of marijuana from the car trunk along with additional marijuana, weapons, and other contraband from the home. Lance and Susan Gates were indicted for violations of Illinois drug laws. The Illinois Circuit Court granted their motion to suppress the evidence, holding that the anonymous letter as corroborated did not establish probable cause. The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the suppression order, and the Illinois Supreme Court also affirmed, concluding that the letter and affidavit failed to satisfy the two-pronged test under Aguilar v. Texas and Spinelli v. United States. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to consider the application of the Fourth Amendment to a magistrate's issuance of a search warrant based on a partially corroborated anonymous informant's tip.