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SCOTUS: Search incident for driving on a suspended license violates Fourth Amendment: Arizona v. Gant; Belton limited

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

In a rare win for logic, SCOTUS holds today in Arizona v. Gant, 2009 WL 1045962 (5-4, not the usual suspects) that a search incident for driving on a suspended license is improper because there is no evidence to be secreted for that offense. Chimel, after 28 years, is finally returned to its roots. As I have argued repeatedly on this blog, and many times since Belton was decided, Belton is strictly limited to its facts. Search incident is no longer a license to search a car on the officer's whim. The Court wisely notes that Belton has been rejected by nine states on state constitutional grounds (Vermont, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, New York, Oregon, and Wyoming) and statute (Massachusetts). Slip op. at 14 n. 8. Significantly, the Court also underscores that there is a privacy interest in vehicles after all: For several reasons, we reject the State’s argument...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on April 21, 2009 (boomark / email).