4th Amendment Victory!
Submitted by scottmorgan on January 17, 2006 - 12:33pm.
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled last week that police may not automatically search vehicles following an arrest of the driver. This finding contradicts the U.S. Supreme Courtā??s ruling in New York v. Belton, which holds that police may search any vehicle following the lawful arrest of its driver. The Belton rule is supposed to prevent suspects from destroying evidence or reaching for weapons, but in practice it's just another excuse to search people:

1. Protocol dictates that arrested suspects be immediately hand-cuffed and placed in the back of a squad car. Once arrested, they no longer have access to the contents of their vehicle.

2. Most arrests are minor and unlikely to inspire a reckless or desperate act by the arrestee. The limited potential for such conduct should not displace the 4th Amendment.

3. In states that allow discretionary arrests for minor crimes (e.g. Texas), the Belton rule encourages police to perform pretextual arrests just so that they can search. This is horrible.

4. Other exceptions to the warrant clause will apply in cases where the discovery of additional evidence seems probable. If police see or smell anything, they can search. Belton only helps when there isnā??t any such evidence.

Fortunately, Iā??m not the only one who lies awake at night cursing the Supreme Courtā??s decision in New York v. Belton. In a unanimous ruling, the NJ Supreme Court concluded that Beltonā??s logic ā??simply does not pass muster.ā? The article also notes that MA, NV, OR, NM, WY, and PA have similarly rejected the Supreme Courtā??s outrageous effort to strip arrestees of their 4th Amendment protections.

Iā??m hopeful that this case will embolden defense attorneys in other states to take a look at the search-incident-to-arrest issue and seek relief under their state constitutions. Constitutional minimum standards enable states to offer more stringent Bill of Rights protections than the federal government, meaning that efforts at the state level can undermine Belton even if the Supreme Court hesitates to revisit it.

Search-incident-to-arrest is one of the nastiest and far-reaching 4th Amendment exceptions our highest court has created. If defendants and attorneys are willing to fight, we can erode this ridiculous policy one state at a time.

taken from Flex Your Rights.