Anyone in PA here?

[Loren Littlejohn]

Just wondered what you thought of the police not needing a search warrant to search your vehicles anymore?

http://www.pacourts.us/assets/opinions/Supreme/out/J-5-2013oajc - 1017924602181959.pdf?cb=1


Fuck the 4th amendment am I right? Who needs that pesky shit.

 

[He's Dead, Jim]

This section is gradually becoming a combination of InfoWars and unsolicited chain e-mails from your eccentric conservative uncle.

"As they did so, they noticed the
smell of marijuana emanating from the passenger and driver sides of the vehicle. When
Officer Baker asked Appellee if there was anything in his vehicle that the officers “need
[to] know about,” Appellee responded that there was some “weed.” The officers
removed Appellee from the SUV, placed him in the police cruiser, and summoned the
canine unit. As Police Officer Snyder and his dog, Leo, began to walk around the SUV,
Appellee got out of the police cruiser and started running from the scene. With Leo’s
help, the officers apprehended Appellee and returned him to the police cruiser. The
search of Appellee’s SUV yielded approximately two pounds of marijuana, found under
the front hood in a bag lodged next to the air filter."

I would respectfully suggest that they did not need a warrant to search this car with probable cause, which, in this case, was a dude literally telling the police he had illegal drugs in his car. Additionally,

"“This does not mean that they may search every vehicle they stop,” Winters said. “They must still develop probable cause before they are permitted to search your vehicle without a warrant.”

In the Gary case, probable cause for the vehicle stop was window tint the officers believed to be illegal. Officers smelled marijuana and asked about it; Shiem then told an officer there was “weed” in the vehicle. A search ensued.

“This case does not eliminate the need for the police to have probable cause to search,” Stedman said.

The district attorney said the ruling puts Pennsylvania in line with federal law and many other states.

Locals stressed that probable cause to stop a vehicle does not equate with probable cause to search it.

A driver can still refuse if an officer asks for consent to search a car. The officer can then only search if he/she has probable cause to do so, or a warrant. A driver refusing consent, alone, does not give a police officer probable cause to search."

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Alex Jones is a fucking whack job. Actually I read about this in PA's local news.

It's interesting that you call into question a court document that says on the first page:

In this case, we again address the requirements in this Commonwealth for a
warrantless search of a motor vehicle. After consideration of relevant federal and state
law, we now hold that with respect to a warrantless search of a motor vehicle that is
supported by probable cause, Article I, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution
affords no greater protection than the Fourth Amendment to the United States
Constitution. Accordingly, we adopt the federal automobile exception to the warrant
requirement, which allows police officers to search a motor vehicle when there is
probable cause to do so and does not require any exigency beyond the inherent
mobility of a motor vehicle.

 

[cfh11]

is this news? cops have been searching cars without warrants in my area for years... and the "strong smell of marijuana" is by far the most common reason.

 

[Line666]

To be fair probable cause is usually a whole load of hokey invented BS anyway given how the police work - I remember watching a show about the UK police force they have here (the sort of show where they break down some dudes door to find a quarter and call it a success for good policing in hyperbolic gravely overtones) and an officer stopped some dude he thought was dodgy and the probable cause for searching his vehicle was "I smelt marijauna eminating from the trunk", so the guy checks the trunk and doesn't find any weed at all but instead a bag of coke - a victory for policing? Sure but he sure as fuck didn't smell any real probable cause

 

[egan.]

Probable cause has always been an end-run around the 4th amendment. Nothing new there. Stop and frisk is much more concerning.

 

[bryan_kilco]

is this news? cops have been searching cars without warrants in my area for years... and the "strong smell of marijuana" is by far the most common reason.

Was gonna say ^^.

The way I see it, it'd either be A) You refuse the search, they make you sit there and wait while they acquire a warrant, then they search your car anyhow, or B) Just let them search it and get it over with. I haven't been in a scenario where I've had my vehicle searched in like 10 years or so and hope to keep it that way.