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MI: Dog sniff at the door of a home does not violate Fourth Amendment, and a conflict is created with FL

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A dog sniff at the front door of a house is not unconstitutitonal. The question of a dog sniff is the place where the sniff was made, and the front door is open to the public. People v. Jones, 2008 Mich. App. LEXIS 1039 (May 20, 2008): Thus, the Court did not state or suggest that police activity at a home is categorically distinguishable from police activity involving the trunk of a car for purposes of analyzing the constitutionality of a canine sniff. Rather, the categorical distinction of which the Court spoke related to the difference between police activity that reveals lawful as well as unlawful conduct, thereby invading a zone of privacy and implicating Fourth Amendment protections, and a dog sniff that reveals only the presence of contraband (unlawful conduct) and does not intrude on legitimate privacy interests...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on May 23, 2008 (boomark / email).