Supreme Court limits vehicle searches

[Bigum1969]

Saw this on msnbc. Thought it might be of interest to folks here. It is very interesting to see how each Supreme Court judge came down on this decision.

Supreme Court limits vehicle searches - Crime & courts- msnbc.com

 

[jeremy]

Interesting...
It will be nice to see how this is received in here.

 

[4sarge]

Thanks for the info

 

[dross]

I doubt that any 5-4 decision has aligned quite that way.

Scalia has the reputation of adhering most strictly to the original meaning, but I think Thomas is an even more stalwart defender of the Constitution.

 

[CulpeperMM]

this seems backwards... i am all for protecting our 4th amendment rights, but if someone has been justly arrested then there is probable cause, no?

yet the warrant-less searches at check points of innocent citizens continues.

 

[Joe Williams]

The court made the correct decision. If the cop has probable cause to search, they can get a warrant. They are still allowed warrantless searches if, for example, they see the driver smoking a joint, arrest him/her, then search the car for more grass. With the suspect out of the car and secured, there is no danger to the police, and no reason to rush to preserve evidence.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Great case! "Officer safety" was becoming a magic want/magic key in far too many cases.

Unsure how this will interact with inventory searches though.

 

[hornadylnl]

Justice John Paul Stevens said in the majority opinion that warrantless searches still may be conducted if a car's passenger compartment is within reach of a suspect who has been removed from the vehicle or there is reason to believe evidence will be found of the crime that led to the arrest.

Okay, you can wipe your ass with the above statement. They put a he said/she said caveat in it that deems the decision worthless. All the arresting officer has to say is he saw him trying to hide something or throw it or whatever. Also, if there are multiple officers, they can have a couple of them put their knees in the back of the suspect next to the car while they search.

Or the officer can just hope the guy is a chump and ask for permission to search and the guy will say yes.

 

[Denny347]

Not that big a deal. They did not address vehicle inventories for when they are towed. That will have to be another challenge. However, Indiana Supreme Court has been more strict with vehicle searches for awhile and this falls in line with what we have know here for some time. Plain view, smells, are good indicators for a search. Heck, in Indy, not many people go to jail for just a traffic offense. They may have to walk home though.

 

[Denny347]

Justice John Paul Stevens said in the majority opinion that warrantless searches still may be conducted if a car's passenger compartment is within reach of a suspect who has been removed from the vehicle or there is reason to believe evidence will be found of the crime that led to the arrest.

Okay, you can wipe your ass with the above statement. They put a he said/she said caveat in it that deems the decision worthless. All the arresting officer has to say is he saw him trying to hide something or throw it or whatever. Also, if there are multiple officers, they can have a couple of them put their knees in the back of the suspect next to the car while they search.

Or the officer can just hope the guy is a chump and ask for permission to search and the guy will say yes.

They can say it if it is the truth but we don't generally say things just for the hell of it. If we truly want to get into a car that bad we will get a warrant, it's really not that hard. We have access to a Judge 22hrs a day.

 

[Sureshot129]

Well won't that cause a back log and tie up property longer, your going to jail you screwed up why create a bigger government problem you want a speedy trial so why slow it down with B.S. if you do something to get thrown in jail and you have done or are doing something worse and have it in your car search incident to arrest just speeds things up. If your arrested and have done nothing else wrong they won't find anything and you go to jail for what you did wrong.........big deal. If a person has been arrested for possession of a firearm w/o a licence and they had just used that weapon to abduct someone incapscitated them in the trunk if they have to wait for a warrent the car gets hauled to impound and the person dies now what charge the suspect with murder?