Justices curb drug searches
Supreme Court says police may not use a traffic stop as pretext for a wider inquiry.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court told police Tuesday they may not turn routine traffic stops into drug searches using trained dogs.
The 6-3 decision limits the increasingly common practice whereby officers stop a car for a traffic violation and then call for a drugsniffing dog to inspect the vehicle.
The justices, both liberal and conservative, agreed that it was an unconstitutional search and seizure to hold a motorist in such cases.
“Police may not prolong detention of a car and driver beyond the time reasonably required to address the traffic violation,” said Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, speaking for the court.
The decision applies the 4th Amendment’s ban on “unreasonable searches and seizures” and covers all police — local, state and federal.
Ginsburg said police officers who stopped a car for speeding or another traffic violation were justified in checking the motorist and his driver’s license. But a traffic stop does not give officers the authority to conduct an “unrelated” investigation involving drugs, she said.
“The tolerable duration of police inquiries in the traffic-stop context is determined by the seizure’s ‘mission’ — to address the traffic violation that warranted the stop and attend to related safety concerns,” she explained in Rodriguez vs. United States. “Authority for the seizure thus ends when tasks tied to the traffic infraction are — or reasonably should have been — completed.”
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined her opinion.
Tuesday’s ruling marks one of the few times the high court has invoked the 4th Amendment to limit police conducting traffic stops.
Two years ago, the justices ruled police may not use drug-sniffing dogs around the front door of a home without a search warrant, emphasizing the privacy expectations of a home.
The justices now expand that to prevent traffic stops from becoming a pretext for stopping cars and conducting drug searches.
The case decided Tuesday began when a Nebraska police officer saw a vehicle run onto the shoulder of a highway and then jerk back to the road.
The driver, Dennys Rodriguez, said he had driven off the road to avoid a pothole. The officer, after examining the driver’s documents and checking out a passenger who was with him, gave Rodriguez a written warning.
Once the traffic stop was done, the officer asked Rodriguez for permission to search his car with a drugsniffing dog. The driver refused, but the officer told him he could not leave until a second officer arrived.
About five minutes later, the second officer arrived, and the dog searched around the car and alerted to the presence of drugs. The officers found a bag of methamphetamine.
Rodriguez was prosecuted in federal court for the drug violation, but he challenged the seizure of evidence on the grounds that it violated the 4th Amendment. The judge and the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a minimal extra detention of seven to 10 minutes was reasonable, and Rodriguez was sentenced to five years in prison.
The high court reversed the 8th Circuit and said it was not reasonable to prolong the stop so the dog could sniff around the car.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Anthony M. Kennedy dissented. They said the stop itself was legal, and it was reasonable to hold the motorist and passenger because the officer suspected they may be carrying drugs.