Bruce Edward Brendlin v. California

Decided June 18, 2007. David Hackett Souter delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 06-8120 · 551 U.S. 249 (2007) · Cited 1,523 times

Holding

W hen police make a traffic stop, a passenger in the car, like the driver, is seized for Fourth Amendment purposes and so may challenge the stop’s constitutionality.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 9–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Delaware v. Prouse · 440 U.S. 648 (1979)
• Whren v. United States · 517 U.S. 806 (1996)
• United States v. Mendenhall · 446 U.S. 544 (1980)
• County of Sacramento v. Lewis · 523 U.S. 833 (1998)
• Maryland v. Wilson · 519 U.S. 408 (1997)
• Michigan v. Chesternut · 486 U.S. 567 (1988)
• Brower Ex Rel. Estate of Caldwell v. County of Inyo · 489 U.S. 593 (1989)
• Florida v. Bostick · 501 U.S. 429 (1991)
• Rakas v. Illinois · 439 U.S. 128 (1978)
• California v. Hodari D. · 499 U.S. 621 (1991)
• United States v. Martinez-Fuerte · 428 U.S. 543 (1976)
• United States v. Drayton · 536 U.S. 194 (2002)
• Terry v. Ohio · 392 U.S. 1 (1968)
• Berkemer v. McCarty · 468 U.S. 420 (1984)
• United States v. Brignoni-Ponce · 422 U.S. 873 (1975)
• Pennsylvania v. Mimms · 434 U.S. 106 (1977)
• United States v. Hensley · 469 U.S. 221 (1985)
• Michigan v. Summers · 452 U.S. 692 (1981)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Delgado · 466 U.S. 210 (1984)
• Atwater v. City of Lago Vista · 532 U.S. 318 (2001)
• Almeida-Sanchez v. United States · 413 U.S. 266 (1973)
• Colorado v. Bannister · 449 U.S. 1 (1980)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Arizona v. Johnson · 555 U.S. 323 (2009)
• Manuel v. City of Joliet · 580 U.S. 357 (2017)
• Torres v. Madrid · 592 U.S. 306 (2021)
• Garland v. Gonzalez · 596 U.S. 543 (2022)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

Explore from here

David Hackett Souter’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2007). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).