Legal Research

Virginia v. Moore

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: ABA Criminal Justice Section (www.abanet.org/crimjust)
 
In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police have the power to conduct searches and seize evidence, even when done during an arrest that turns out to have violated state law.

The case, Virginia v. Moore, was an appeal by the State of Virginia of a ruling by its Supreme Court. After detaining a man for driving with a suspended license, an ensuing search found a small amount of crack cocaine. In Virginia, driving with a suspended license is not an arrestable offense, thus the state court found the search to be invalid under the Fourth Amendment.

Justice Antonin Scalia, in his opinion overturning the ruling by Virginia Supreme Court, stated that the Fourth Amendment was not intended in the states to be used ?as a redundant guarantee of whatever limits on search and seizure legislatures might have enacted.?

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, while siding with the ruling but concurring separately, made clear that even though it violated Virginia law, the arrest and search of Moore was constitutional.

Claiming that the use of state laws as guidance to provide the basis for searches would introduce uncertainty into the legal system, attorneys general from 18 states lined up in support of Virginia prosecutors.

Click on the link below to access the full opinion. If you cannot click on the link, copy and paste it into your browser. http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/07pdf/06-1082.pdf

The American Bar Association through the Criminal Justice Section had submitted an amicus brief in the case.

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on April 24, 2008 (boomark / email).