You Gant search my glove compartment. (Sorry, I couldn't resist).
I'm a bit giddy with the restoration of privacy rights regarding police access to the contents of my car.
The typical m.o.--
Police across the country were trained that upon arresting the occupant of a car, they could place the arrestee handcuffed inside a police car, and then conduct a full-scale search of the passenger compartment, even though the arrestee could not possibly reach anything inside the car that was stopped. Recently, the Court broadened the Belton rule in Thornton v. United States, applying the rule even when the arrestee had already walked away from the car.
News flash from SCOTUS.
SO. OVER.
Justice Stevens' majority opinion in Gant restores the privacy interests motorists have in their vehicles under the Fourth Amendment. While noting that the privacy interest in a car is less than that in a home, Gant makes clear that the former is "nonetheless deserving of constitutional protection," especially since the searches authorized by Belton included personal effects such as purses and briefcases in the passenger compartment. The "central concern underlying the Fourth Amendment," Justice Stevens explains, is "the concern about giving police officers unbridled discretion to rummage at will among a person's private effects."
Although Justice Stevens asserts that the Court has not actually reversed Belton and Thornton and only narrowed their scope, Justice Alito's view in dissent is more accurate. As Justice Alito writes, "there can be no doubt" that Gant overrules both decisions. Police across the country now will have to be retrained that they can search the passenger compartment of a car only if (1) the arrestee is uncuffed and within reaching distance of the car, or (2) the police have reason to believe there is evidence of the offense of arrest in the car.
(...)
"Overturning the settled law in federal and most state courts, the Supreme Court ruled that police may no longer automatically search the passenger compartment of a car incident to the arrest of one of the car's occupants. Instead, police may search the passenger compartment only if the arrestee is unsecured and "within reaching distance of the vehicle," or if "it is reasonable to believe the car contains evidence of the offense of arrest." In so ruling, the Court reaffirmed that people do have a Fourth Amendment privacy interest in the contents of their cars.Read more here.
David L. McColgin [Supervisory Assistant Federal Defender (Appeals), Federal Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]: "Arizona v. Gant [PDF file] is one of the most significant pro-Fourth Amendment decisions in decades."
Baby, baby
Im aware of where you go
Each time you leave my door
I watch you walk down the street...
Think it over.
Im aware of where you go
Each time you leave my door
I watch you walk down the street...
Think it over.
