Arizona v. Gant
Arizona v. Gant | |
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Holding | |
1) Belton does not authorize a vehicle search incident to a recent occupant’s arrest after the arrestee has been secured and cannot access the interior of the vehicle. 2) Circumstances unique to the automobile context justify a search incident to arrest when it is reasonable to believe that evidence of the offense of arrest might be found in the vehicle. | |
Court membership | |
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Case opinions | |
Majority | Stevens, joined by Scalia, Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg |
Concurrence | Scalia |
Dissent | Breyer |
Dissent | Alito, joined by Roberts, Kennedy; Breyer (except Part II–E) |
Laws applied | |
U.S. Const. amend. IV |
Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332 (2009), was a
Background
The case involved Rodney J. Gant, who was arrested by
Arguments before the court
Gant's counsel argued that an unreasonable expansion of a limited authority to search vehicles incident to arrest provided by the Supreme Court's 1981 decision in New York v. Belton had been occurring. Lower courts had been permitting searches that occurred after the initial justification for setting aside the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement had ceased to exist, relying on a so-called bright-line rule of "if arrest, then search." Gant argued, and the court ultimately agreed, that such application of the Belton rule caused the exception to "swallow the rule," allowing unconstitutional searches.[3]
Amici curiae
A group of legal scholars, including University of Iowa law professor James Tomkovicz, wrote an amicus curiae brief asking the court to overturn the 1981 case of New York v. Belton that granted police the authority to search a person's vehicle even if the person is not in the vehicle. According to Tomkovicz, Belton failed to meet the constitutional standard of probable cause.[4]
Opinion of the court
In an opinion delivered by
Justice Breyer wrote a separate dissent agreeing with Justice Alito that New York v. Belton established a bright-line rule allowing a warrantless search of a vehicle's passenger compartment incident to the lawful arrest, but Breyer acknowledged that this rule can lead to outcomes that diverge from the underlying rationale of the Fourth Amendment.
See also
- List of United States Supreme Court cases
- List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 556
- Chimel v. California (1969)
- New York v. Belton
References
- ^ a b "ARIZONA v. GANT". LII / Legal Information Institute. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
- ^ "ARIZONA v. GANT | Law 101: Fundamentals of the Law". courses.lumenlearning.com. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
- ^ "How Arizona v. Gant Changed Procedures for Searching Arrestee's Vehicles". All Rise. July 1, 2009. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
- ^ "Law professor Tomkovicz writes brief for case in upcoming Supreme Court term". The Press-Citizen. September 29, 2008.
Further reading
- Emmons, C. (2004). "Arizona v. Gant: An Argument for Tossing Belton and All Its Bastard Kin". Arizona State Law Journal. 36: 1067. ISSN 0164-4297.
- Rudstein, David S. (2005). "Belton Redux: Re-evaluating Belton's Per Se Rule Governing the Search of an Automobile Incident to an Arrest". Wake Forest Law Review. 40: 1287. ISSN 0043-003X.
- Stiles, Devon M. (2010). "Faded Lines: Another Attempt to Delineate Reasonableness in Automobile Searches Incident to Arrest" (PDF). Wyoming Law Review. 10 (1): 319. Retrieved October 27, 2010.
Adopting the automobile exception as the alternative to Gant simultaneously protects privacy interests while enabling law enforcement total access to vehicles, without the need for further litigation
- Wells, Holly (2007). "State v. Gant: Departing from the Bright-Line Belton Rule in Automobile Searches Incident to Arrest". Arizona Law Review. 49: 1033–1041. ISSN 0004-153X.
- Berland, David (2011). Note, "Stopping the Pendulum: Why Stare Decisis Should Constrain the Court from Further Modification of the Search Incident to Arrest Exception". University of Illinois Law Review 2011: 695.
External links
- Text of Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332 (2009) is available from: Cornell CourtListener Findlaw Google Scholar Justia Oyez (oral argument audio) Supreme Court (slip opinion) (archived)
- Arizona v. Gant at ScotusWiki