Standard for Stop, Frisk Clarified by Full Second Circuit

Police officers may search a person on the street if they have a reasonable belief they pose a threat, even when their conduct is ambiguous and susceptible to an innocent explanation, the en banc Second Circuit said Monday.

The case was watched closely by civil rights organizations.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, in a friend of the court brief, said that communities of color bear the brunt of illegal frisks by police. In another amicus brief, the NAACP said that “Black and Latinx people” are regularly subjected to humiliation and fear during stops and frisks.

Syracuse, N.Y., police ...