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"Cert. petition to watch": Arizona v. Gant

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

SCOTUSblog lists Arizona v. Gant, conferenced Friday, as a "cert petition to watch." Gant is posted here on this website. The opinion below is here. The question presented from the cert petition: In New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454 (1981), this Court held that the risks to officer safety and to the preservation of evidence inherent in the arrest of a vehicle’s recent occupant justify a contemporaneous warrantless search of the automobile’s passenger compartment incident to the arrest. The question presented is: Did the Arizona Supreme Court effectively "overrule" this Court’s bright-line rule in Belton by requiring in each case that the State prove after the fact that those inherent dangers actually existed at the time of the search? The Arizona court held that Gant was not a "recent occupant" under Thornton because he was handcuffed and in a police car.continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on February 24, 2008 (boomark / email).