Debates on another discussion board recently caused me to delve into the world of legal decisions and police procedures. What I found has scared the hell out of me. For instance, if you are pulled over for a traffic violation (such as speeding), the officer can arrest you for that violation, impound your car, conduct an 'inventory search' of your vehicle (without a warrant), and if anything illegal is found, charge you with its possesion. The SCOTUS has upheld this practice, as long as the police department has a 'standardized' procedure for 'inventory searches', whether those procedures are written or not.
So in other words, a police officer who suspects you of a crime can stop you for speeding, arrest you for it (yes, they can arrest you in lieu of giving you a ticket), and impound your car. He can then search your car for contraband without a warrant under the inventory search proviso. All he has to do to make it legal is say he found it incidental to the inventory, and not as a result of a suspicion of criminal activity.
The Fourth Amendment just got weaker. Things like this Rockefeller set of laws need to go. These types of legislation are destroying the Constitution.
What have you got to hide, doper? </sarcasm>