Cite as: 532 U. S. 318 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
common law"); Jones v. Root, 72 Mass. 435 (1856) (rebuffing constitutional challenge to statute authorizing officers "without a warrant [to] arrest any person or persons whom they may find in the act of illegally selling, transporting, or distributing intoxicating liquors"); Main v. McCarty, 15 Ill. 441, 442 (1854) (concluding that a law expressly authorizing arrests for city-ordinance violations was "not repugnant to the constitution or the general provisions of law"); White v. Kent, 11 Ohio St. 550 (1860) (upholding municipal ordinance permitting warrantless arrest of any person found violating any city ordinance or state law); Davis v. American Soc. for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 75 N. Y. 362 (1878) (upholding statute permitting warrantless arrest for misdemeanor violation of cruelty-to-animals prohibition). See generally Wilgus, Arrest Without a Warrant, 22 Mich. L. Rev. 541, 550, and n. 54 (1924) (collecting cases and observing that "[t]he states may, by statute, enlarge the common law right to arrest without a warrant, and have quite generally done so or authorized municipalities to do so, as for example, an officer may be authorized by statute or ordinance to arrest without a warrant for various misdemeanors and violations of ordinances, other than breaches of the peace, if committed in his presence"); id., at 706, nn. 570, 571 (collecting cases); 1 J. Bishop, New Criminal Procedure §§ 181, 183, pp. 101, n. 2, 103, n. 5 (4th ed. 1895) (same); W. Clark, Handbook of Criminal Procedure § 12, p. 50, n. 8 (2d ed. 1918) (same).
Finally, both the legislative tradition of granting warrantless misdemeanor arrest authority and the judicial tradition of sustaining such statutes against constitutional attack are buttressed by legal commentary that, for more than a century now, has almost uniformly recognized the constitutionality of extending warrantless arrest power to misdemeanors without limitation to breaches of the peace. See, e. g., E. Fisher, Laws of Arrest § 59, p. 130 (1967) ("[I]t is generally recognized today that the common law authority to arrest without a warrant in misdemeanor cases may be enlarged by
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