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Moore no more - Never Moore.

By Marks & Katz, LLC

  Bill of Rights (From public domain.) When the U.S. Supreme Court granted cert in Virginia v. Moore, _ U.S. _ (April 23, 2008), that did not sound good. Yesterday, five years after the Supreme Court unanimously crushed a great Maryland high court probable cause case like a potato chip, Maryland v. Pringle, 540 U.S. 366 (2003), the Supreme Court unanimously reversed Moore.  A year ago, I described Moore as follows: In Virginia, unlike in some other states, the police are generally prohibited from arresting for any misdemeanor (Va. Code § 19.2-74), which prevents a search incident to a non-arrestable misdemeanor. Moore v. Commonwealth, 272 Va. 717 (2006). Consequently, a search finding cocaine incident to an arrest for suspended driving was unlawful, because suspended driving is a non-arrestable misdemeanor, unless, as with all misdemeanors, the defendant refuses to give his or her name and address together with a promise to return to court...continue to full post

Full post as published by Underdog on April 24, 2008 (boomark / email).