Cite as: 532 U. S. 318 (2001)
O'Connor, J., dissenting
(1968)). See also, e. g., United States v. Ramirez, 523 U. S. 65, 71 (1998); Maryland v. Wilson, 519 U. S. 408, 411 (1997); Ohio v. Robinette, 519 U. S. 33, 39 (1996); Florida v. Jimeno, 500 U. S. 248, 250 (1991); United States v. Chadwick, 433 U. S. 1, 9 (1977).
We have "often looked to the common law in evaluating the reasonableness, for Fourth Amendment purposes, of police activity." Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U. S. 1, 13 (1985). But history is just one of the tools we use in conducting the reasonableness inquiry. See id., at 13-19; see also Wilson v. Arkansas, 514 U. S. 927, 929 (1995); Wyoming v. Houghton, 526 U. S. 295, 307 (1999) (Breyer, J., concurring). And when history is inconclusive, as the majority amply demonstrates it is in this case, see ante, at 326-345, we will "evaluate the search or seizure under traditional standards of reasonableness by assessing, on the one hand, the degree to which it intrudes upon an individual's privacy and, on the other, the degree to which it is needed for the promotion of legitimate governmental interests." Wyoming v. Houghton, supra, at 300. See also, e. g., Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives' Assn., 489 U. S. 602, 619 (1989); Tennessee v. Garner, supra, at 8; Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U. S. 648, 654 (1979); Pennsylvania v. Mimms, supra, at 109. In other words, in determining reasonableness, "[e]ach case is to be decided on its own facts and circumstances." Go-Bart Importing Co. v. United States, 282 U. S. 344, 357 (1931).
The majority gives a brief nod to this bedrock principle of our Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, and even acknowledges that "Atwater's claim to live free of pointless indignity and confinement clearly outweighs anything the City can raise against it specific to her case." Ante, at 347. But instead of remedying this imbalance, the majority allows itself to be swayed by the worry that "every discretionary judgment in the field [will] be converted into an occasion for constitutional review." Ibid. It therefore mints a new rule that "[i]f an officer has probable cause to believe that an indi-
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