. -- brinegar versus united states. federal investigators recognized a coupe belonging to a man. i got this from his granddaughter, who had no idea her grandfather had a u.s. supreme court case and was convicted as a bootlegger. he did not touch alcohol in his later years. so the fbi -- or the federal investigators recognized him, who had a reputation for hauling liquor. he had a reputation because there was an earlier case that went all the way to the state supreme court for this same reason. so based on his reputation and the observation that the rear end of the car appeared weighted down, the agents forced his car to the side of the road, searched it, and found 13 cases of liquor, obviously without a warrant. it might be puzzling that the supreme court would agree to hear this case, because according to their opinion, brinegar was indistinguishable from carroll on the material facts. the supreme court does not hear cases involving straightforward applications of precedent unless the justices have reservations about the precedent. and that was the case here. to most of the just