Post by Origanalist on Oct 6, 2014 20:40:55 GMT -8
SCOTUS to Decide How Long Cops Can Wait for a Four-Legged Search Warrant
Jacob Sullum|Oct. 3, 2014 2:14 pm
Yesterday the Supreme Court, which last year decided two important cases involving drug-detecting dogs, agreed to hear another one. Rodriguez v. U.S. asks the Court to elaborate on its reasoning in the 2005 case Illinois v. Caballes, where it said police are free to use drug-sniffing dogs during routine traffic stops but suggested stops that are "unreasonably prolonged" to facilitate such inspections would violate the Fourth Amendment. Rodriguez poses the question of how long a delay must be to cross that line.
The case involves Dennys Rodriguez, who was pulled over in 2012 on Highway 275 in Nebraska after he swerved onto the shoulder of the road (to avoid a pothole, according to Rodriguez). Morgan Struble, the Valley, Nebraska, police officer who stopped him, gave him a warning, at which point Rodriguez should have been free to go. But Struble, after unsuccessfully seeking permission to walk a drug-sniffing dog around the car, detained Rodriguez another seven or eight minutes, waiting for a deputy sheriff to arrive. Although Struble had a dog in his patrol car, he did not want to bring it out until he had another officer to back him up. After the deputy arrived, Struble walked the dog around the car, it alerted, and the cops searched the car, finding a bag of methamphetamine.
In January the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled that "the traffic stop was not unreasonably prolonged." The delay of seven or eight minutes, it said, had no constitutional significance, amounting to a "a de minimis intrusion on Rodriguez's personal liberty." The fact that the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case suggests that at least a few justices may disagree.
continued...reason.com/blog/2014/10/03/scotus-to-decide-how-long-cops-can-wait
HT/www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?460955-The-Clowns-in-Gowns-to-decide-how-long-cops-can-hold-you-in-order-to-get-a-drug-dog
Jacob Sullum|Oct. 3, 2014 2:14 pm
Yesterday the Supreme Court, which last year decided two important cases involving drug-detecting dogs, agreed to hear another one. Rodriguez v. U.S. asks the Court to elaborate on its reasoning in the 2005 case Illinois v. Caballes, where it said police are free to use drug-sniffing dogs during routine traffic stops but suggested stops that are "unreasonably prolonged" to facilitate such inspections would violate the Fourth Amendment. Rodriguez poses the question of how long a delay must be to cross that line.
The case involves Dennys Rodriguez, who was pulled over in 2012 on Highway 275 in Nebraska after he swerved onto the shoulder of the road (to avoid a pothole, according to Rodriguez). Morgan Struble, the Valley, Nebraska, police officer who stopped him, gave him a warning, at which point Rodriguez should have been free to go. But Struble, after unsuccessfully seeking permission to walk a drug-sniffing dog around the car, detained Rodriguez another seven or eight minutes, waiting for a deputy sheriff to arrive. Although Struble had a dog in his patrol car, he did not want to bring it out until he had another officer to back him up. After the deputy arrived, Struble walked the dog around the car, it alerted, and the cops searched the car, finding a bag of methamphetamine.
In January the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled that "the traffic stop was not unreasonably prolonged." The delay of seven or eight minutes, it said, had no constitutional significance, amounting to a "a de minimis intrusion on Rodriguez's personal liberty." The fact that the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case suggests that at least a few justices may disagree.
continued...reason.com/blog/2014/10/03/scotus-to-decide-how-long-cops-can-wait
HT/www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?460955-The-Clowns-in-Gowns-to-decide-how-long-cops-can-hold-you-in-order-to-get-a-drug-dog