Last week, April 21, 2009, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a very significant opinion affecting the "war on drugs" and the right of U.S. citizens to be secure against illegal searches.
Prior to the decision, Gant v. Arizona, if a driver was stopped by a police officer for a traffic offense, and then was arrested for that offense, the police officials would conduct a search of the vehicle. The idea was that the search was incident to an arrest, that the defendant might have a weapon in their car. Most of the time, the search was conducted while the defendant was in custody, handcuffed and seated in the back of a police vehicle.
The Court found that that logic was specious. There is no danger that the defendant could get to a weapon in his car. Accordingly, the Court found that the "fruits" of the search were inadmissible. The logic of this decision does not seem odd or unusual, yet these searches were routinely approved based on the need for "officer safety" lest the handcuffed defendant get to his car and secure the weapon. Justice Scalia, a conservative member of the Court, wrote the majority opinion.

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Motor Vehicle Searches- Supreme Court of the United States

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