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Name: U.S. v. Drayton
Case #: 01-631
Opinion Date: 06/17/2002
Citation: 536 U.S. 194
Summary

The driver of the bus on which appellants were traveling allowed three police officers aboard as part of a routine drug and weapons search. The officers testified that any passenger who declined to cooperate or who wanted to leave would have been allowed to do so. Appellants agreed to a search, during which officers found cocaine. The Eleventh Citcuit reversed appellants’ convictions, holding that bus passengers do not feel free to disregard officers’ requests absent some positive indication that it is permitted to do so. Here, the Supreme Court reversed that holding. The Fourth Amendment does not require police officers to advise bus passengers of their right not to cooperate and to refuse consent to searches. Further, the search was not unreasonable, and the consent was voluntary under the circumstances.