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IL: Warrant check of passengers after a valid stop is not unreasonable

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Illinois holds that a warrant check of the passengers in a validly stopped car is not unreasonable, even under its more expansive interpretation of state law. People v. Harris, 2008 Ill. LEXIS 292 (March 20, 2008): As noted above, a warrant is a matter of public record. An individual has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the fact that a court has entered a written order commanding his arrest. 725 ILCS 5/107-1 (West 2002). A warrant check does not implicate legitimate privacy interests because, like a dog sniff, it does not reveal any legitimately private activity or information, or result in any physical contact with the individual or his property. See Caballes, 543 U.S. at 409-10, 160 L. Ed. 2d at 848, 125 S. Ct. at 838. We, therefore, conclude that this court's treatment of the warrant-check issue in Harris I is inconsistent with the Supreme Court's analysis in Caballes...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 22, 2008 (boomark / email).