Supreme Court Ruling Regarding Evidence Collected from Searches Incident to Illegal Stops
As we all know, every citizen has certain rights that are guaranteed to them under the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. One of those rights is to not be subjected to unlawful searches and seizures under the 4th Amendment. It has been a well established doctrine of law that law enforcement officers are allowed to search a vehicle so long as the search is conducted incident to arrest. What does that mean exactly? That means that if you are pulled over on a traffic stop and the law enforcement officer runs your name through CODIS, NCIC, or any other electronic database and finds that you have outstanding warrants, then they can arrest you. After you are placed into custody, those law enforcement officers are then able to search your vehicle and any contraband or illegal items that they find can be used against you. However, in order to pull you over in the first place, the law enforcement officer would have needed "probable cause" that you had committed s