Supreme Court scales back police right to search cars
The Supreme Court put a new limit on police searches of cars, saying that "countless individuals guilty of nothing more serious than a traffic violation" have had their vehicles searched in violation of their rights. In a 5-4 decision, the justices set aside a 1981 opinion that had given police broad authority to search cars whenever they made an arrest. The ruling limits searches to cases when there may be a weapon within the suspect's reach or evidence related to the arrest. The decision sets aside broader powers granted by the court in 1981.
Well folks, that has all changed. Educate yourself and assert your new protection the Supreme Court has given us all. Now that the court has spoken the little detail in defeating a "qualified immunity" claim that police officers ALWAYS claim when sued, regardless of what they are alleged to have done is one of the two prongs that you must overcome, "that the right violated was clearly established law". Well folks, this makes it "clearly established law". Those "searches incident to arrest" we all see around here all the time can be challenged, and won. If the justices say the police can't do something and the police do it aways, well, what exactly does that mean? It means they did it UNLAWFULLY.
