Dog sniff not a search, court says

[TransitJohn]

CHEYENNE -- A drug dog "sniff" is not a search under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled Friday.

The Supreme Court noted this is the first case which squarely presented the issue of whether a canine sniff of the exterior of a vehicle amounts to a search.

The state's high court handed down the decision on the appeal of James Allen Morgan, who was convicted in Laramie County District Court of possession with intent to distribution more than three ounces of marijuana, a felony.

Morgan and a companion, Daniel Fisher, were traveling northbound on Interstate 25 in Laramie County on Nov. 18, 2001, when their vehicle broke down.
State Trooper Benjamin Peech went to the scene after receiving a call concerning the disabled vehicle. After Peech took the two men to a nearby truck stop, he thought he recalled Morgan's name from a previous drug intelligence report. He asked dispatch to do a criminal check which disclosed Morgan's prior drug conviction.

The patrolman called for a canine unit from the Laramie County Sheriff's Department to meet him at the disabled vehicle. The drug dog sniffed around the outside of the vehicle and "alerted," or gave a signal indicating that it detected the scent of drugs.


http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/08/15/news/wyoming/9cd114237912223e87256ef0007933f7.txt

[Cerridwen]

1. Uh, oh. More erosion of the protection against

illegal search and seizure.

I want my rights back, dammit!

[bogey18]

2. Yes, and next looking at the contents of your computer

from afar won't be a "search" - and visualizing the inside of your home with specialized equipment won't be a search"search".

[jmowreader]

11. They already visualize the inside of your home

Or at least the heat signature coming off it, using a thermograph.

Apparently, if you have a lot of heat coming from a small area, you're growing marijuana in there and are therefore a candidate for a search warrant.

They can also read your electrical usage, too. If you use a lot of electricity and it is switched on and off at regular intervals, you're growing marijuana in there.

You could be keeping a large marine reef aquarium, too. Those produce a lot of heat--corals need a lot of light to thrive, reefkeepers use metal halide lighting to illuminate their tanks, and metal halide lighting generates a huge amount of heat. They also draw a lot of power--a 250-gallon reef tank with stony corals in it needs four 400-watt metal-halide bulbs, and you run those off timers. Add your filters, pumps, protein skimmers, and all the rest of the gear you must run, you're looking at maybe 3kW total draw, and half of that will be during the optimum photoperiod for pot plants. AND the half that comes on during the day looks, on an oscilloscope, exactly like pot-farm grow lights.

If I were to buy that kind of an aquarium, I'd throw a party for the cops in the room where the tank was. That way they'd see it.

[DBoon]

16. Someone was actually "busted" innocently for electric use

Some very middle class family that found themselves under unwanted police scrutiny because of excessive electricity use. No link, I just remember the opening paragraph about the wife not realizing that doing the kid's laundry at night would make her a suspected marijuana grower.

[DoktorGreg]

20. Hey thats not fair

The people they busted for that also had the temerity to put their garbage out in the morning rather than the night before. So that search warrent had both excess electrical usage and funny garbage disposal routeins.

[DBoon]

24. Wow, do you have a link?

This was in the last year, and my efforts to search for the news story came to nought.

Just an average suburban family with innocent habits that placed them under police suspicion. We will see more folks in this situation in the future, I'm afraid.

[Chico Man]

3. So can the police simply walk through parking garages with dogs

and sniff every car?

I have been in parking garages for concerts and I have seen this take place. I always wondered the legality.

[0007]

4. What could one expect from Wyoming?

Gee anyone would know dogs are used to scare, 'eh?

[TransitJohn]

7. Actually

Our state supreme court is usually on the side of the Bill of Rights. This ruling is somewhat of an aberration. Why do you denigrate my home?

[Walt Starr]

28. I lived there for a quarter century

He's not denigrating Wyoming. I think he's being too soft on the Reichwingnut state.

The politics in Wyoming are only slightly to the right of Ghengis Khan.

[stevedeshazer]

13. Unnecessary and undeserved crack on Wyoming

Ever been there?

[Massacure]

5. Lemme put my flame suit on -- Cause I agree with the courts this time.

Going up and looking through someone's car window isn't illegal, and so a dog on the outside of a car shouldn't be illegal either.

However if they were to go inside the car, without a search warrent, that would be. The car would probably be moved by that time though.

[Gyre]

8. It's more subtle than you think

Using your basic human senses to view items "in plain view" has been deemed to be not a "search", whereas using infra red, xrays, etc. has. A dog has smelling ability far beyond "basic human senses", hence, it's a "search". At least that's my read on it. This is the type of case that may go before the US Supreme court for clarification.

This isn't clear at this point because the real court hasn't addressed it. Wyoming can say what they want but it's the US Supreme Court that decides what is and isn't a 4th Amendement violation.

Gyre

[truthisfreedom]

6. point being, every time you pass through wyoming, burn your tires.

because their highways are covered with pot.

[AP]

9. I think that contradicts the US Supreme Ct decisison about searches...

...with heat cameras. I think the holding in that case was that when you use a supersensitive device to find something that a human being couldn't perceive on their own, you need probable cause, a warrant, or a border.

I could be misremembering that case.

[lostnfound]

12. Offtopic, but is that photo for real? I assume it isn't...

but will be pleasantly surprised if you tell me otherwise.

[AP]

14. It's from the Kerry Blog.

It looks like someone took a digital picture of their TV screen.

It looks real to me.

[lostnfound]

25. That is excellent & very funny.

It's so rare that anything gets captioned in a pro-Kerry way, especially by comparison.

[AP]

27. I love the reporter's expression.

[leesa]

10. OK. The dogs are trained to search but it's not a search.

Do any of our judges have an IQ exceeding Dubya's?

[jukes]

15. the crux of this case

is not mentioned in the article. an "alert" by a drug trained dog does NOT constitute probable cause for a search. it does lend credence to an application for a search warrant of the vehicle in question.

my guess is the cops in this case "asked" for the keys to the vehicle & the perp produced them, believing the officer was acting under color of law. had he refused, the cops wd have had to apply for a warrant, & cd not have interfered w/ the owner repairing the car and leaving, if it cd be done before the actual warrant arrived on the scene & was served.


these cops bent the law & skirted perjury because they did not testify they had "ordered" the surrender of the keys.

it's a bad decision, this was an illegal search & the evidence is "fruit of the poisonous tree". unfort, the decision will probably stand, since the punishment was too light for the defendant to pay an attorney for the necessary appeal to overturn the decision.

[nolabels]

21. Serve and Protect the population from the Evil Druggies and their commerce

The police unions should erect a large bronze statue in homage of Rockefeller. The percentage per capita of police force would be halved with out that guy

Blood in War: Protecting the German Blood

The following is excerpted from RACIAL HYGIENE: MEDICINE UNDER THE NAZIS by Robert N. Proctor (pgs. 131-132 and 150-151).

Anti-Semitism in the German Medical Community

The Nuremberg Laws

In the fall of 1935 Hitler signed into law a series of three measures -- the so-called Nuremberg Laws -- to further "cleanse" the German population from unwanted elements. The Reich Citizenship Law ("Reichsbürgergesetz") of September 15, 1935, distinguished between citizens and residents ("Reichsbürger" and "Staatsangehöriger"). Citizens, the more exclusive category, included only those "of German or related blood who through their behavior make it evident that they are willing and able faithfully to serve the German people and nation." Jews in particular (but also single women!) were considered residents and were excluded from many privileges now accorded only to citizens.
(snip)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/redgold/basics/racialhygiene.html

[SemperEadem]

17. Once you've been convicted, you give up your right to refuse a search

in the future, right? The cops can search you anytime they want and you have to submit--that's my understanding.

If he'd never been convicted and had no record, then the bar would have been set much higher to justify the search. But he'd been convicted of drug possession before.

[jukes]

22. untrue

a prior police record only lends weight to other factors used to apply for a warrant. the only civil rights lost by convicted felons (& NOT always & forever) is the right to vote or own a firearm.

[LiberalFighter]

26. Only if they are on parole or probation

[DBoon]

18. My Dog agrees...

A sniff is a greeting, not a search.

(sorry about the flip post. My dog made me do it)

[Endangered Specie]

19. What did you expect from a state

where the buffalo get more government representation than just about everyone else.

[Fovea]

23. What fourth amendment?

Between the war on some drugs, and the war on terra, it has been entirely gutted. I don't know why they don't just black it out, as it means nothing in Bush Amerika.

[Eloriel]

29. What idiocy

This must be from the George Bush/John Ashcroft/Alberto Gonzalez school of law.

Ptooey.