If a Dog Sniff Around a Car is Not A Search, What About a Dog Sniff Around a Home?

The Volokh Conspiracy ^ | December 27, 2011 | Orin Kerr

[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.

[bamahead]

Today it's for narcotics/drugs.

Tomorrow it's for illegal foodstuffs and contraband gunpowder.

What's next?

[bamahead]

Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or post a message here!

[MediaMole]

Not a lawyer, but the car is on the street on public property, the house is set back from the public right of way on private property.

Not sure that will past legal muster, but it’s a place to start.

[muir_redwoods]

If the dog can smell it the dog can assert probable cause when the dog asks for a warrant.

[Paladin2]

Gunpowder.

FreeRepublic residue.

[HiTech RedNeck]

i can has cheezburger?

[afraidfortherepublic]

Doggie ping...

[Myrddin]

The dog can't apply for a warrant. The officer's interpretation is just that...interpretation. If the officer/dog pair can't be cross examined in court in front of a jury, anything the pair invents is simply crap. The officer needs to have a warrant that explicitly states what is sought. If he needs the dog's help as a "sensor", that is a different issue. The search doesn't start until the warrant is presented.

[null and void]

Not sure that will past legal muster, but it’s a place to start.

Already decided

Police cannot go through a gate to plant a tracker on your car, but if it is in your driveway, that's OK.

Po' folk don't have as many gates...

...or as many rights.

[decimon]

Today it's for narcotics/drugs.

Tomorrow it's for illegal foodstuffs and contraband gunpowder.

What's next?

Seditious Terrorist literature. CO2 causing appliances. Improper influences on a child.

[SandRat]

WOOOF!

The Doggie Ping list is for FReepers who would like to be notified of threads relating to all things canid. If you would like to join the Doggie Ping Pack (or be unleashed from it), FReepmail joe 6-pack.

[Joe 6-pack]

WOOOF!

The Doggie Ping list is for FReepers who would like to be notified of threads relating to all things canid. If you would like to join the Doggie Ping Pack (or be unleashed from it), FReemail me.

[Frank_2001]

I would like to bring up the point that a K-9 is considered to be a police officer in most jurisdictions.

[bamahead]

Thursday, December 29, 2011 11:51:10 PM by SandRat

Thursday, December 29, 2011 11:51:10 PM by Joe 6-pack

Now that's a tag-team ping if I've ever seen one!

[Frank_2001]

Unfortunately, he can’t speak;)

[SandRat]

We go WWE next month....maybe...lol

[Salamander]

I've got a fenced yard.

Let 'em send their dog in.

[JosephMama]

No freedom. Get used to it guys.

Sometimes I feel like abandoning ship.

[mamelukesabre]

This is nothing. Wait til they have technology to see everything inside your house from a plane flying overhead.

[mamelukesabre]

are you kidding? Havn’t you been paying attention? They shoot dogs on sight. Your dog is not a problem to them whatsoever.