344
Opinion of the Court
statute, and this has been done in many of the states"); Wilgus, supra, at 705-706 ("Statutes and municipal charters have quite generally authorized an officer to arrest for any misdemeanor whether a breach of the peace or not, without a warrant, if committed in the officer's presence. Such statutes are valid" (footnote omitted)); Clark, supra, § 12, at 50 ("In most, if not all, the states there are statutes and city ordinances, which are clearly valid, authorizing officers to arrest for certain misdemeanors without a warrant, when committed in their presence"); J. Beale, Criminal Pleading and Practice § 21, p. 20, and n. 7 (1899) ("By statute the power of peace officers to arrest without a warrant is often extended to all misdemeanors committed in their presence." "Such a statute is constitutional"); 1 Bishop, supra, § 183, at 103 ("[T]he power of arrest extends, possibly, to any indictable wrong in [an officer's] presence. . . . And statutes and ordinances widely permit these arrests for violations of municipal by-laws"); J. Bassett, Criminal Pleading and Practice § 89, p. 104 (2d ed. 1885) ("[A]s to the lesser misdemeanors, except breaches of the peace, the power extends only so far as some statute gives it"). But cf. H. Vorhees, Law of Arrest § 131, pp. 78-79 (1904) (acknowledging that "by authority of statute, city charter, or ordinance, [an officer] may arrest without a warrant, one who . . . commits a misdemeanor other than a breach of the peace," but suggesting that courts look with "disfavor" on such legislative enactments "as interfering with the constitutional liberties of the subject").
Small wonder, then, that today statutes in all 50 States and the District of Columbia permit warrantless misdemeanor arrests by at least some (if not all) peace officers without requiring any breach of the peace,12 as do a host
of congressional enactments.13 The American Law Institute
12 See Appendix, infra.
13 See, e. g., 18 U. S. C. § 3052 (Federal Bureau of Investigation agents authorized to "make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence"); § 3053 (same, for United
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