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U.S. Supreme Court Modifies Search-Incident-to-Arrest Exception to Warrant Requirement

By Ron Chapman

          The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly stated that searches conducted by the police without first obtaining a search warrant are unlawful unless those searches fall within certain recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement contained in the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  One of those exceptions permits police officers to conduct warrantless searches during or immediately after a lawful arrest.  (This is commonly referred to as the "search-incident-to-arrest" exception.)             In the 1981 case of New York v. Belton, the U.S. Supreme Court analyzed the search-incident-to-arrest exception in the context of a police search of a car...continue to full post

Full post as published by Palm Beach Criminal Defense Blog on April 30, 2009 (boomark / email).