Colorado v. Spring

Decided January 27, 1987. Lewis Franklin Powell Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 85-1517 · 479 U.S. 564 (1987) · Cited 1,070 times

Holding

A suspect's awareness of all the crimes about which he may be questioned is not relevant to determining the validity of his decision to waive the Fifth Amendment privilege; accordingly, the ATF agents' failure to inform respondent of the subject matter of the interrogation could not affect his decision to waive that privilege in a constitutionally significant manner.

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 7–2.

“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.

• Miranda v. Arizona · 384 U.S. 436 (1966)
• Moran v. Burbine · 475 U.S. 412 (1986)
• Oregon v. Elstad · 470 U.S. 298 (1985)
• Fare v. Michael C. · 442 U.S. 707 (1979)
• Johnson v. Zerbst · 304 U.S. 458 (1938)
• United States v. Washington · 431 U.S. 181 (1977)
• Wong Sun v. United States · 371 U.S. 471 (1963)
• Brown v. Illinois · 422 U.S. 590 (1975)
• Colorado v. Connelly · 479 U.S. 157 (1986)
• Malloy v. Hogan · 378 U.S. 1 (1964)
• Dunaway v. New York · 442 U.S. 200 (1979)
• Brewer v. Williams · 430 U.S. 387 (1977)
• North Carolina v. Butler · 441 U.S. 369 (1979)
• Culombe v. Connecticut · 367 U.S. 568 (1961)
• Spano v. New York · 360 U.S. 315 (1959)
• Lynumn v. Illinois · 372 U.S. 528 (1963)

Cited by

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

• Arizona v. Roberson · 486 U.S. 675 (1988)
• Illinois v. Rodriguez · 497 U.S. 177 (1990)
• United States v. Ruiz · 536 U.S. 622 (2002)
• Arizona v. Mauro · 481 U.S. 520 (1987)

Official text

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

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1987). 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).