{"id":557,"date":"2026-06-22T17:09:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=557"},"modified":"2026-06-22T17:09:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:09:25","slug":"alito-thomas-scold-scotus-for-refusing-to-enforce-colorblind-constitution-in-police-encounters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=557","title":{"rendered":"Alito, Thomas Scold SCOTUS For Refusing To Enforce ‘Colorblind’ Constitution In Police Encounters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The U.S. Supreme Court dodged a notable case involving the consideration of race and potential Fourth Amendment seizures on Monday. And as has become routine with many significant cases before the bench, only Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas were willing to take it up. <\/p>\n

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The high court revealed in its latest that it has declined to hear arguments and issue a decision in United States v. Donte Carter<\/em>. The deals with the legal question of whether \u201cperceptions of law enforcement that a court attributes to a particular racial group are a relevant factor in the Fourth Amendment analysis of whether a member of that group has been seized.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Justia, the case came to fruition following an encounter between Washington, D.C. police officers and respondent Donte Carter. The officers approached a group of black men \u2014 one of which was Carter \u2014 as part of a \u201cfirearm interdiction operation.\u201d <\/p>\n

At one point, one officer asked Carter if he was carrying a gun, to which Carter denied and \u201ctwice lifted his shirt to show his waistband.\u201d After hiking his pants at the request of the officer, a different officer \u201cnoticed a bulge in [Carter\u2019s] groin area, believed it to be a firearm, and after a brief struggle, the officers recovered a gun from [Carter\u2019s] pants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter was subsequently charged with several gun-related offenses thereafter. In seeking to \u201csuppress\u201d the gun and a following statement, he argued that the officer\u2019s request that he hike his pants constituted an unlawful seizure and that the officer lacked reasonable suspicion at that time. <\/p>\n

While the D.C. Superior Court rejected Carter\u2019s challenge, the D.C. Court of Appeals (DCCA) ruled in his favor. The court held that it constituted an unreasonable seizure within the context of the Fourth Amendment, and that \u201cconsidering the officers\u2019 show of authority, the accusatory and repetitive questioning, and [Carter\u2019s] status as a Black man in a highly policed area, a reasonable person in his position would not have felt free to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. government petitioned SCOTUS in January to take up the case and reverse the DCCA\u2019s decision. <\/p>\n

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Supreme Court rules require that at least four justices must agree to hear a case before it can be considered by the full court. But Monday\u2019s order list indicates that only Alito and Thomas were willing to do so.<\/p>\n

Writing on behalf of himself and Thomas, Alito authored a blistering dissent chastising his colleagues for ducking a matter that \u201cwarrants this Court\u2019s review.\u201d In assessing the facts of the case, he noted that the DCCA\u2019s decision \u201csaid that it \u2018must look\u2019 to a further fact: the \u2018defendant\u2019s race’\u201d in such matters and effectively eviscerated a race-neutral approach to the Fourth Amendment. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the [DCCA\u2019s] test, officers will need to quickly assess a person\u2019s race, and if officers and courts must craft special rules for black persons, what about dark-skinned Latinos, other Latinos, and members of other minority groups?\u201d Alito wrote. \u201cWe have said that our \u2018\u201dConstitution is color-blind.\u201d\u2018 \u2026 It \u2018almost never\u2019 allows government actors to treat persons differently based on their race.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bush 43 appointee went on to detail how the high court\u2019s past rejection of the \u201cproposition that the Constitution permits an individual to be treated differently based on a \u2018perception that members of the same racial group \u2014 regardless of their age, education, economic status, or the community in which they live \u2014 think alike.’\u201d In doing so, he observed the dangers of permitting people \u201cto be treated differently based on statistics, studies, or expert testimony that purports to show that members of the racial or ethnic group to which he belongs are more likely to act in a certain way than are members of other groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, the special treatment helped the individual; in other situations it will not,\u201d Alito wrote. \u201cPerhaps the DCCA\u2019s test has legitimate justifications. In any event, it is important, and it warrants this Court\u2019s review. I therefore respectfully dissent from the denial of certiorari.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lower court\u2019s decision will remain in effect as a result of the Supreme Court\u2019s unwillingness to hear the case. <\/p>\n

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Only Justices Alito and Thomas were willing to hear a case involving the consideration of race and potential Fourth Amendment seizures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[515,2058,1436,2059,1305,402,519,445,2060,2061,135],"class_list":["post-557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scotus","tag-clarence-thomas","tag-colorblind","tag-d-c-circuit-court","tag-double-standard","tag-fourth-amendment","tag-race","tag-samuel-alito","tag-scotus","tag-search-and-seizure","tag-seizures","tag-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"\nAlito, Thomas Scold SCOTUS For Refusing To Enforce ‘Colorblind’ Constitution In Police Encounters - Property Transition Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=557\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alito, Thomas Scold SCOTUS For Refusing To Enforce ‘Colorblind’ Constitution In Police Encounters - Property Transition Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Only Justices Alito and Thomas were willing to hear a case involving the consideration of race and potential Fourth Amendment seizures.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=557\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Property Transition Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-22T17:09:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=557#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=557\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/318e38080556664c79a2d76a6b0894b2\"},\"headline\":\"Alito, Thomas Scold SCOTUS For Refusing To Enforce ‘Colorblind’ Constitution In Police Encounters\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-22T17:09:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=557\"},\"wordCount\":754,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=557#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/dbec2c3a6d0eacef79a79d0f2f48a1c9.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Clarence Thomas\",\"Colorblind\",\"D.C. 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