Supreme Court Accepts Car Search Case Seeking ‘Bright-Line’ Rule
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a bright-line rule allows police to search the passenger compartment of a car without a warrant simply because they arrested a recent occupant.
The Arizona Supreme Court had ruled (PDF) that a search was not justified when the scene was secure and the recently arrested occupant was handcuffed and posed no threat to officer safety. The cert petition (PDF posted by SCOTUSblog) by the state of Arizona in State v. Gant claims the decision misconstrues Supreme Court precedent established in the 1981 case New York v. Belton.
“The Gant decision directly contradicts this court’s precedents, conflicts with the decisions of nearly all federal circuit courts and state courts, and imposes an unworkable case-by-case test that will hinder the police in conducting arrests and searches safely and consistently,” the cert petition says.
The defendant, Rodney Joseph Gant, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for driving with a suspended license. Police searched his car and found a handgun and cocaine in the passenger compartment. Gant was handcuffed and in the back of a patrol car supervised by other officers at the time.
