A Kavanaugh stop is a law enforcement practice in the United States in which federal agents can stop and detain a person based on their perceived ethnicity, spoken language, and occupation. Kavanaugh stops originated in a September 2025 Supreme Court concurrence by Justice Brett Kavanaugh in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo.

The term "Kavanaugh stop" originated in October 2025 in media reporting.[1][2][3][4][5][6] The term was coined by Drexel University School of Law Professor Anil Kalhan who in reference to a later case where a Latino man was detained overnight by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) despite ICE not inquiring about his immigration status, and then releasing him only "once a supervisor realized he had been illegally arrested", which prompted Professor Kalahan to post on social media in response to a description of the situation "What we might refer to as a 'Kavanaugh stop'."[7]