Arizona V. Gant- A Strengthening Of The Fourth Amendment

By Author: Jamie Hanson
Total Articles: 3495
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The law enforcement officers are taken aback on a decision by the Supreme Court decision regarding a vehicle search to arrest a suspect. In the Gant case, the Supreme Court uphold the search of Rodney Gant's vehicle, which took place after Mr. Gant, who was arrested for driving on a undecided license, was handcuffed and held in the back of a police vehicle. The police recovered cocaine and a gun from Gant's vehicle.

Prior to Gant, the Supreme Court had pronounced the above mentioned search event to an arrest exception to the Fourth Amendment, pursuant to the holdings in many important decisions. The holdings of Chimel and Belton was an example. Under Chimel, police may carry out a search incident to an arrest for the space within an arrestee's immediate control, which the Court gave verdict as "the area within which he might gain ownership of a weapon or destructible evidence." 395 U.S., at 763. The rule set forth in Chimel was later applied to vehicle searches in New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454 (1981), and subsequently addressed in Thornton v. United States, 541 U.S. 615 (2004).

Over the period of the last twenty-eight ...
... years, while Belton was decided, many Court's have escalated the application of Belton, which has led numerous law enforcement officers to believe that a hunt of the passenger compartment of a vehicle incident to an otherwise authentic arrest is essentially always permissible. The explanation was decided in Gant. The Gant decision stands for the intention that a search of the passenger compartment of a vehicle culminating to an arrest is only valid if- (1) an arrestee is within reaching place of the passenger compartment at the time of the hunt or (2) it is reasonable to believe the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of detain. However, if these justifications are absent, a search of an "arrestee's vehicle will be unreasonable unless police obtain a warrant or show that another exception to the warrant requirement applies". Id.

The Gant decision is fairly recent, and as of now, it's unclear what impact this decision will have on criminal defense lawyers, defendants, or the law enforcement community. The decision may depress many criminal lawyers as defence attorney. At this point, it is still quite early to tell what impact, if any, the Gant decision may have on crime statistics, or officer security; however, the Supreme Court obviously recognized the importance in revisiting this issue, and has given some much needed direction for officers conducting warrantless vehicle searches leading to an arrest.

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