Whren v. United States legalized pretextual traffic stops enabling racial profiling

Evidence

In 1996 the War on Drugs targeting black Americans got an assist from the Supreme Court when it declared open season on black drivers in Whren v. United States. The Court declared that the police could pull over any motorist anytime they violated the rules of the road. Given the frequency with which all drivers do not follow traffic laws, that decision legalized the racial profiling of black motorists. The crime of driving while black was created by a unanimous Supreme Court opinion written by the late Justice Scalia. (The Supreme Court continues to write antiblack opinions.) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 419

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the mechanism by which a nominally race-neutral traffic rule becomes legalized racial profiling — everything turns on pretext being permissible.
• XREF: connects to: Colorblind national-security pretexts let courts uphold racial bans they reject elsewhere — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 640; Facially neutral ordinances enforced discriminatorily violate equal protection — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2955