Draper v. United States - Significance, Informant Provided "reasonable Grounds", Dissent Says Arrest Unlawful, Impact, Related Cases

Draper v. United States - Significance

This decision authorized a warrantless arrest by a federal narcotic agent under the federal narcotics laws based solely on information from a paid informant. Because the informant was employed by the agent to provide such information and his information had always been reliable in the past, the informant's statements to the agent, once verified by the agent's personal observations, gave the agent …

Draper v. United States - Informant Provided "reasonable Grounds"

The Supreme Court affirmed the lower courts' rulings that the search of petitioner and seizure of the heroin were valid as incident to a lawful arrest and that the heroin was properly admitted at trial. The Fourth Amendment requires "probable cause" for an arrest. Under the federal Narcotic Control Act of 1956, agents of the Bureau of Narcotics were permitted to "make arrests without warrant for v…

Draper v. United States - Dissent Says Arrest Unlawful

Justice Douglas issued a lengthy dissent in which he concluded that the arrest made on the mere word of an informer violated the spirit of the Fourth Amendment and the requirement of the law governing arrests in narcotics cases. According to Douglas, "apart from those cases where the crime is committed in the presence of the officer, arrests without warrants, like searches without warrants, are th…

Draper v. United States - Impact

Draper v. United States - Related Cases

Draper v. United States - Marijuana Use And Drug Legalization

In 1973, on the heels of the drug-culture explosion that attended the late 1960s and early 1970s, the National Opinion Research Center asked a sampling of the population, "Do you think the use of marijuana should be made legal or not?" Interestingly, the Department of Health and Human Services' National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), found an overall decrease in drug use between 1985 and …