This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

Officers Venegas and Sotelo were cruising in a patrol car. They observed D and another man walking in opposite directions away from one another in an alley in a high-crime drug area. Although the two men were a few feet apart when they were first seen, Officer Venegas later testified that both officers believed the two had been together or were about to meet until the patrol car appeared. Officer Venegas asked D to identify himself and explain what he was doing there. The other man was not questioned or detained. The officer testified that he stopped D because the situation 'looked suspicious and we had never seen that subject in that area before.' D refused to identify himself and was arrested for violation of Tex. Penal Code Ann., Tit. 8, § 38.02 (a) (1974), which makes it a criminal act for a person to refuse to give his name and address to an officer 'who has lawfully stopped him and requested the information.' The officers searched D, and nothing untoward was found. D was convicted and fined $ 20 plus court costs for violation of § 38.02. On appeal, D moved to set aside the information on the ground that § 38.02 (a) of the Texas Penal Code violated the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments and was unconstitutionally vague in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The motion was denied. D waived a jury, and the court convicted him and imposed a fine of $ 45 plus court costs. Under Texas law, an appeal from an inferior court to a county court is subject to further review only if a fine exceeding $ 100 is imposed. The County Court's rejection of D's constitutional claims was a decision 'by the highest court of a State in which a decision could be had.' D appealed, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari.

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