Hiibel was arrested after a confrontation beside his 1988 GMC pickup with Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputy Lee Dove. Hiibel was standing outside the truck smoking a cigarette, and his adult daughter was inside the cab, when Dove pulled up and said he had received a report that the two had been fighting.

Dove asked Hiibel 11 times to show his identification, but Hiibel refused.

He was arrested and convicted of resisting an officer by refusing to show his identification, a misdemeanor. He was fined $250.

Hiibel appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court, but when the state court ruled against him, he took his case to the nation’s highest court.

Monday’s ruling followed a 1968 decision in the case of Terry v. Ohio, which said that officers may detain people when they have “probable cause” to believe they have committed a crime.

During such “Terry stops,” officers have the right to ask questions about the person’s identity, the court said.

But, the court said, “it has been an open question whether the suspect can be arrested and prosecuted for refusal to answer.”

In Monday’s ruling, the justices settled that question.

“The Nevada statute is consistent with Fourth Amendment prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures because it properly balances the intrusion on the individual’s interests against the promotion of legitimate government interests,” said Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority.

But Justice John Paul Stevens, writing the dissenting opinion, said “a person’s identity obviously bears informational and incriminating worth.”

“As the target of that investigation, (Hiibel), in my view, acted well within his rights when he opted to stand mute,” Stevens wrote.