Posted on 12/29/2011 8:27:34 PM PST by bamahead
SCOTUSblog flags a pending cert petition on an interesting Fourth Amendment question:
What limits, if any, does the Fourth Amendment place on the use of a trained drug-sniffing dog to approach the front door of a home?
The police might do this to see if the dog will alert for the presence of narcotics in the home, which might then be used to help show probable cause and obtain a warrant to search it. Under Illinois v. Caballes, the use of the dog around a car is not a “search” and therefore outside the Fourth Amendment. The question is, does the Caballes rule apply when the dog is brought to the front door of a home rather than a car? A divided Florida Supreme Court ruled in Jardines v. State that Caballes does not apply and that probable cause is required to bring the dog up to the home for a sniff.
--SNIP--
Everyone agrees that use of human senses can’t themselves violate the Fourth Amendment (eyesight, hearing, smelling, etc.), and the Court has held that the use of some sense-enhancing devices is okay (such as flashights) while the use of other sense-enhancing devices crosses the line and becomes a search (such as the use of thermal imaging devices on a home). In the case of sniffs around a car, reasonable people can disagree for a number of reasons on how dog sniffs should fit in this framework. But once the Court announces the rule for the common case of the sniff around a car, as it did in Caballes, some officer is going to try to use the rule to see if it applies elsewhere, as in a search around a home.
(Excerpt) Read more at volokh.com ...
...what about where dogs usually put their nose?
Cheers!
he means drug sniffing dawgs owned by the cops. and yes its a search. how they can argue that its not a search, well the logic escapes me.
They’re not gonna shoot a dog in a fenced yard...especially if I’m out there with him.
===I would like to bring up the point that a K-9 is considered to be a police officer in most jurisdictions.===
So if one bites me is that police brutality?
I’m sure many of the folks here would be all for this.
After all.... If you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide. Right?
...which is an indication of how stupid the laws have become in our country.
LOL I hope you are wearing a vest. They'll shoot that poor dog whether you are with it or not. They'll hit it 3 times, out of 477 shots fired.
Which is why I have a pack of Labs 3 adults and now 9 puppies. It will take a few minutes shooting to get them all.
Cops have been doing it for the past 5 years on a weekly basis if not more.
Just as with this move to corporate photo traffic enforcement.....if they watch you long enough they’ll find a traffic violation and a way to profit from it.
The goal is no longer about finding serious perps, but about profiting from the violation or the incarceration, or finding political dissidents who don’t like photo traffic cameras, or keeping society covered with a big net while everyone is screened.
When the concept of our leaders in declaring war went from defending us from actions, to preemption and conjecture based upon intel, the logical next step is to apply preemption rule to the general public and consider everyone of us as a potential threat worthy of questioning and screening. I don’t see Obama or Romney turning this trend around. Romney has been anointed by the media and GOP powers.
Unfortunately, dogs in fenced yards have been shot, even with their owners present.
Free Republic has several such incidents reported.
The frequency of such reported events is concerning, to say the least.
I hope that you never experience such a tragedy.
I am against the war on drugs and think we should just legalize them all and treat it as a health problem. Take all the crime and money out of it.
That said, I think the difference between drug sniffing around a car or a house comes down to this: are the police on public property or private property. The police are more than welcome to use their dog on public road outside the body of your car. As long as they are on public property, you have no right that prevents them.
As far as the home goes, as long as they do not trespass on your private property, your home is fair game. So if you are on 5 acres, they can’t get to your home. They have to stay outside your gate. If your condominium fronts right on a public alley, then the police are more than welcome to use their dog on that alley if they so chose.
That is the dividing line. The police cannot trespass on your private property, be it your home lot or inside your car. As long as they are walking on public ground, they are welcome to come as close to your car or your home as public ground can get them.
Do you assume I’ll be out there buck naked and carrying a daisy?
We don’t even have cops come around here, if they can avoid it.
Hillbillies are “funny people” and the 99% of the cops are local boys and know that.
Sorry but I’m not gonna be cowed.
A hail of bullets or die in my sleep...I don’t care.
I’m not for it.
Got no warrant?
Go to hell.
I will sit here patiently and wait for you to find *one* incident where cops came out into the backwoods and shot some hillbilly’s dog.
It’s an urban problem and it’s gonna stay that way.
Well aware of it and have been on every one of those threads.
It’s *always* some urban/suburban area.
It’s not gonna happen out here.
Ruby Ridge?
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