328
Opinion of the Court
nearly as clear as Atwater claims; on the contrary, the common-law commentators (as well as the sparsely reported cases) reached divergent conclusions with respect to officers' warrantless misdemeanor arrest power. Moreover, in the years leading up to American independence, Parliament repeatedly extended express warrantless arrest authority to cover misdemeanor-level offenses not amounting to or involving any violent breach of the peace.
1
Atwater's historical argument begins with our quotation from Halsbury in Carroll v. United States, 267 U. S. 132 (1925), that
" '[i]n cases of misdemeanor, a peace officer like a private person has at common law no power of arresting without a warrant except when a breach of the peace has been committed in his presence or there is reasonable ground for supposing that a breach of peace is about to be committed or renewed in his presence.' " Id., at 157 (quoting 9 Halsbury, Laws of England § 612, p. 299 (1909)).
than not, when used in reference to common-law arrest power, the term seemed to connote an element of violence. See, e. g., M. Dalton, Country Justice, ch. 3, p. 9 (1727) ("The Breach of th[e] Peace seemeth to be any injurious Force or Violence moved against the Person of another, his Goods, Lands, or other Possessions, whether by threatening words, or by furious Gesture, or Force of the Body, or any other Force used in terrorem"). On occasion, however, common-law commentators included in their descriptions of breaches of the peace offenses that do not necessarily involve violence or a threat thereof. See M. Hale, A Methodical Summary of the Principal Matters Relating to the Pleas of the Crown *134 (7th ed. 1773) ("Barretries"); 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 149 (1769) (hereinafter Blackstone) ("[s]preading false news"). For purposes of this case, it is unnecessary to reach a definitive resolution of the uncertainty. As stated in the text, we will assume that as used in the context of common-law arrest, the phrase "breach of the peace" was understood narrowly, as entailing at least a threat of violence.
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