The United States Supreme Court Will Render a Major Decision on Vehicle Searches This Fall!
By: Kenneth Stecker
Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor
The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear an important Fourth Amendment case regarding the search of an automobile after the driver has been lawfully arrested.
The case is State of Arizona v. Rodney Joseph Gant.
The facts of the case are that in 2000 the Tucson Police Department acted on a tip that narcotics activity was taking place at a residence. The police conducted a records check of one of the residents, Rodney Gant, and learned that Gant had an outstanding warrant for driving with a suspended license. Gant drove up to the residence while the police were there.
As he stepped out of his vehicle, an officer shined a flashlight on the car, called to him, and Gant walked toward the officer. Gant was about 8 to 10 feet from his car when the officer placed him under arrest, handcuffed him, and placed him into the back of a nearby patrol car. After his arrest, officers searched Gant’s vehicle and found cocaine in the pocket of a jacket in the car and a weapon.
Gant was charged with unlawful possession of cocaine for sale and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia. He filed a motion to suppress, which the court denied on the ground that the search of his car was lawful because it was a search incident to his arrest, pursuant to the United States Court decision of New York v. Belton (In Belton, the Supreme Court held that the risks to officer safety and to the preservation of evidence inherent in the arrest of a vehicle’s recent occupant justified a contemporaneous warrantless search of the automobile’s passenger compartment incident to the arrest). Gant was convicted of the charges, and he was incarcerated for 3 years.
The Arizona Court of Appeals reversed and ruled that the defendant’s motion to suppress should have been granted. The court further ruled that Belton is distinguishable because Gant stopped his vehicle and voluntarily exited his vehicle. By contrast, in Belton the police confronted the suspect while he still was in his car. After the case bounced back and forth through the judicial system in 2007, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the post-arrest search of his car violated the Fourth Amendment and, therefore, held the search to be illegal.
The State of Arizona disagreed and petitioned to the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court granted the State’s petition, and it will hear oral arguments on October 7, 2008. Thereafter, the Court is expected to immediately render a decision after oral arguments.
The United States Supreme Court’s decision will have a profound impact on law enforcement throughout the country. The Arizona decision will require the Supreme Court to re-examine the 1981 Belton ruling. In essence, the Supreme Court will answer this question when it renders its decision: Does the Fourth Amendment require law enforcement officers to demonstrate a threat to their safety or a need to preserve evidence related to the crime of arrest in order to justify a warrantless vehicular search incident to arrest conducted after the vehicle’s occupants have been arrested and secured?
The State of Arizona makes several arguments for its position. The most notable argument is that no special justification exists for overturning Belton, a case which lower courts have repeatedly relied upon for over twenty-seven years. On the other hand, the defendant argues that the police had no reason to believe that anyone at the scene could have gained access to his vehicle or that the officers’ safety was at risk and, therefore, without probable cause the search was illegal.
Realizing the potential ramifications this case may have on law enforcement throughout the State of Michigan, Attorney General Michael A. Cox on behalf of the State of Michigan filed a legal brief to the United States Supreme Court supporting the State of Arizona’s decision.
Editor’s Note: Kenneth Stecker is the Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor for the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan and can be contacted at steckerk@michigan.gov.
