High Court Rules Dog Sniff During Traffic Stop OK Without Suspicion Of Drugs

Associated Press ^ | 1/24/2005

[Lazamataz]

The Supreme Court gave police broader search powers Monday during traffic stops, ruling that drug-sniffing dogs can be used to check out motorists even if officers have no reason to suspect they may be carrying narcotics.

In a 6-2 decision, the court sided with Illinois police who stopped Roy Caballes in 1998 along Interstate 80 for driving 6 miles over the speed limit. Although Caballes lawfully produced his driver's license, troopers brought over a drug dog after Caballes seemed nervous.

Caballes argued the Fourth Amendment protects motorists from searches such as dog sniffing, but Justice John Paul Stevens disagreed, reasoning that the privacy intrusion was minimal.

"The dog sniff was performed on the exterior of respondent's car while he was lawfully seized for a traffic violation. Any intrusion on respondent's privacy expectations does not rise to the level of a constitutionally cognizable infringement," Stevens wrote.

In a dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg bemoaned what she called the broadening of police search powers, saying the use of drug dogs will make routine traffic stops more "adversarial." She was joined in her dissent in part by Justice David H. Souter.

[SevenMinusOne]

Sheeesh....they basically just vacated the right to decline when they "ask" if they can search your car. The cops can say you "acted nervous" (who doesn't, when getting pulled over??) and bring in the dog. Dishonest ones can toss a roach in the car...

Exactly right - What a terrible decision - My Father always warned about having too many judges appointed by Republicans on the High Court - He did so solely because of privacy rights and how they would be done away with simply for the power of police -

Daily we are losing our freedoms. We simply are.

[t_skoz]

THE AMERICAN RUSE
( Words & music by MC5 )

They told you in school about freedom
But when you try to be free they never let ya
They said "it's easy , nothing to it"
And now the army's out to get ya
Sixty nine America in terminal stasis
The air's so thick it's like drowning in molasses
I'm sick and tired of paying these dues
And i'm finally getting hip to the American ruse

I learned to say the pledge of allegiance
Before they beat me bloody down at the station
They haven't got a word out of me since
I got a billion years probation


Sixty nine America in terminal stasis
The air's so thick it's like drowning in molasses
I'm sick and tired of paying these dues
And i'm sick to my guts of the American ruse
Phony stars, oh no! crummy cars, oh no!
Cheap guitars, oh no! Joe's primitive bar... nah!

Rock'em back, Sonic !
The way they pull you over it's suspicious
Yeah, for something that just ain't your fault
If you complain they're gonna get vicious
Kick in the teeth and charge you with assault
Yeah, but i can see the chickens coming home to roost
Young people everywhere are gonna cook their goose
Lots of kids are working to get rid of these blues
cause everybody's sick of the American ruse

Well well well , take a look around !
Well well well , take a look around !
Well well well , take a look around !
Well well well , take a look around !
Well well well , take a look around !

[NJ_gent]

"My point was that the dog sniff itself was not an invasion of privacy."

Then neither would running an x-ray machine over the car or running an infrared scan on the car or doing other such tests which don't physically impact the vehicle. Either we keep it to what a human officer can detect in 'plain view' or we open the floodgates to using things like NSA's TEMPEST to really shoot personal privacy to hell.

"But the cops had probable cause.... the dog barked."

Remind me to take my dog's "Puperoni" treats out of my trunk before driving home. Wouldn't want to send the wrong message.

"The opinion specifically noted that the sniff itself didn't inconvenience Caballes in any way"

It doesn't inconvenience you in any way if I put a tap on your phone and read your email either. So long as I don't disrupt your telephone service or your email, everything's a-ok, right? Inconvenience isn't the reason we don't allow blanket searches. We don't require warrants because it's 'inconvenient' to have a dozen cops rifling through your stuff. We require warrants because it's wrong for the state to invade the privacy of citizens without just cause and due process. Using devices or animals which perceive beyond 'plain view' violates the reasoning behind 'plain view's' reason for being. If you can search everything, then search everything. It's either plain view or it's everything.

"The fourth amendment protects a person's effects except when the state has probable cause to search or seize them."

The protection of privacy extends beyond seizure to cover the search itself. A 'plain view' search is really a misnomer. Things have to be readily apparent to be caught in such a "search", whereas a true search involves seeking out something. When a drug dog was brought over and used to search the vehicle using its extraordinary abilities (a sense of smell many times more powerful than that of a human), a search was conducted without probable cause. The only 'cause' mentioned was that the suspect appeared to be acting 'nervous' - whatever that means.

The Soviets had the same protections for all their citizens in their constitution that we have in our's. Ask yourself why it is that the average Soviet lived so differently from the average American when they had the same rights guaranteed in supreme law.

[t_skoz]

Probably ahead of their time? CERTAINLY ahead of their time. There never has never been a band like the MC5. What the world needs now is a radical libertarian version of the MC5 (gimme a couple of years, I'm workin on it...)

A friend of mine is a really big conservative, his parents are really big conservatives but were LSD and pot hazed hippies in Ann Arbor in the 60s... his mom is a riot... he called me from his parents' house on Christmas and I screamed KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHERF*$#ERS as loud as I could so his mom could hear me... I could hear her laughing in the background, she used to be the biggest MC5 fan!

[Kay]

Dog wants to know whether you went whiz or bang.

[John Lenin]

After watching 3 friends and one cousin die from drugs and having another family member on disability from them I think I have a right to tell you fools that you are playing with poison.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Or, the Illinois State troopers were lying. Is that what you're alluding to?

---

What? Cops lying to avoid a "technicality", and thus to secure a conviction of a truly guilty person? Heaven forfend! That would NEVER happen!

[NJ_gent]

"Sorry fella, you have no expectation of privacy to the AIR around your car. Whether it be a dog, or odor sensing device... Odors eminating from a vehicle, no MATTER HOW STRONG OR WEAK are not owned by the owner of the vehicle nor can any expectation of privacy related to them be expected."

And the NSA can read what's on your computer screen without being inside your house using the electromagnetic interference patterns generated by your monitor. (See: TEMPEST) Now, does the NSA/CIA/FBI/local police have the right to park outside your house and use infrared scanning equipment to watch your every move, CIA laser technology to monitor everything that's said inside your home, and TEMPEST technology to record everything you do with your television or computer?

Don't answer with what they would or wouldn't do - the question is do they have the right to do those things?

[ClintonBeGone]

Seriously. You don't have anything to hide, do you? Freepmail me your address. We're going to search.

Perhaps if you can tell me what connection you have with law enforcment, I'll consider cooperating.

[af_vet_1981]

Great decision, the druggies at DU will be distressed ...

[t_skoz]

guns Drugs are illegal in any manner that you carry them in.
Obey the law or lobby to have the law changed.

...

...

makes about as much sense, now doesn't it?

[Freebird Forever]

Obey the law or lobby to have the law changed.

Or grease the powers that be so they just harass the competition.

[NJ_gent]

"Perhaps if you can tell me what connection you have with law enforcment, I'll consider cooperating."

Blueknight's a police officer. If you can just leave your front door unlocked every Tuesday and Thursday morning when you go to work, I'm sure the police will be happy to make sure that it gets locked when they're done searching your home for anything which may be illegal or a legal 'gray' area. Thanks for your cooperation, citizen with nothing to hide.

[coloradan]

After watching 3 friends and one cousin die from drugs and having another family member on disability from them I think I have a right to tell you fools that you are playing with poison.

A lot more people have been killed by over-reaching governments than by all illegal drugs combined.

[Liberal Classic]

Not what you call an inspirational comparison.

[pageonetoo]

John Lenin, I set up the shot -- you go right ahead and spike it over the net.

You're not even in the game! You must really be desperate after that slam by Laz!!! That was a three-pointer!

[Lazamataz]

Perhaps if you can tell me what connection you have with law enforcment, I'll consider cooperating.

Say 'Baaaaaahhhh', CBG.

[John Lenin]

The message is simple, don't carry quanities of drugs with you while you are in your car. Knock yourself out, tons of idiots do everyday with drugs.

[NJ_gent]

"A lot more people have been killed by over-reaching governments than by all illegal drugs combined."

Government is a necessary evil. As necessity creates the need, so should it limit its form, function, and power. Whenever government exceeds its need, it becomes destructive to its own ends.

[Lazamataz]

Blueknight's a police officer. If you can just leave your front door unlocked every Tuesday and Thursday morning when you go to work, I'm sure the police will be happy to make sure that it gets locked when they're done searching your home for anything which may be illegal or a legal 'gray' area. Thanks for your cooperation, citizen with nothing to hide.

ClintonBeGone will do it, too.

Ever ready to be a good tovarich, da?