Supreme Court

by Guest 2018-05-14, 14:33

I was mighty nice to see a 9-0 decision today in a 4th amendment case.

Proves that there are still times that all the Justices will want to rein in the government.

The Supreme Court Strikes A Blow Defending The Fourth Amendment

Americans have gotten very careless with their 4th amendment rights, maybe this will alert some.

Beyond the bizarre reason for stopping Byrd (hands at 10-and-2…c’mon, you’re killing me) the principle asserted by the government had the potential for a lot of mischief. Did you ever live in an apartment or rental house and were not listed on the lease? Even though the lease requires all regular residents to be listed? This is actually a pretty common occurrence. Under the government’s theory, the police could search the living area of a person who was not on a housing lease without a warrant.

Significantly, Collins vs. Virginia was argued on the same day as Byrd. In that case, police entered private property and looked under a motorcycle cover to see if it was a stolen motorcycle they were seeking. Here they used the “automobile exception” to the Fourth rather than the “10-and-2” exception. The government didn’t get a very favorable reception in that case either. If we look at Byrd, and the Rodriquez case in 2015 where the Court said police cannot extend a traffic stop in order to have a drug dog come to the scene unless they have probable cause of a drug offense, we’re seeing the Court holding a hard line on the Fourth Amendment.

This was a solid decision by the Court and it was great to see that Justices from Gorsuch to Sotomayor could look at the government’s case and think it was nuts.