Stop!

In Brendlin v. California, No. 06-8120, the Supreme Court of the United States held that a passenger in a car stopped by police is seized for the purpose of the Fourth Amendment and may challenge the constitutionality of the stop. The basis for this very sensible ruling is that a reasonable passenger would not feel free to simply walk away from the encounter. (I feel certain that there must be an episode of Cops that graphically illustrates what happens to a passenger who tries to leave a traffic stop.)  The court also noted that without this rule the police would have an incentive to conduct unconstitutional stops of cars without probable cause because they would know that whatever evidence they found would not be excluded when used against the passenger.  My expectations do not always line up with those which the Supreme Court determines to be reasonable.  For example, without this case I would have assumed that it was unreasonable for the police to go through my trash without probable cause. In Brendlin, however, I think the Court did a good job of recognizing the reality on the ground.

Comments

[Christopher King, Nashua, New Hampshire]

You might want to check the application of this case to the Franconia shooting tragedy.

Make sure to click the links because they all tell one hell of a story.

http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/2007/06/was-liko-kenney-speeding-or-not.html

And here is how the State reacted to our cameras:

http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/2007/06/kingcast-open-letter-to-nh-ags-ayotte.html

Peace.