02/20/2013
In a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the Court carried on a long standing federal government tradition of shearing away at the individual protections granted under the Fourth Amendment. In Florida v. Harris, at issue was whether or not the State was required to abide by a checklist of evidentiary requirements in order to establish probable cause for a vehicle search, as the Florida Supreme Court had held. In Florida, the State must document each drug sniffing dog’s success rate in order to establish probable cause for a Fourth Amendment search.
In a not so surprising, but nevertheless alarming unanimous decision, the Court overruled the Florida Supreme Court’s decision. Citing the importance of flexibility in “probable cause” analyses, Justice Kagan opined “We have rejected rigid rules, bright-line tests, and mechanistic inquiries in favor of a more flexible, all-things-considered approach.” She went on to state that Florida’s “strict evidentiary checklist” is “the antithesis of a totality-of-the-circumstances analysis.”
“Totality of the circumstances” tests are appropriate in many areas of the law, e.g., in the family law context, when a court must determine which parent to grant custody to, it is best to consider all facts a given situation. When it comes to Fourth Amendment individual liberties however, a “totality of the circumstances” analysis serves as little more than a fig leaf. Such “flexible, all-things-considered approaches” to Fourth Amendment inquiries are designed to make you think there is oversight for government overstepping when there is really nothing more there than a rubber stamp.
The “war on drugs,” much like the “war on terror”, are the exceptions to the Constitution. As one officer stated to me not so long ago, with a supercilious grin I might add, “There is always probable cause.” Are the means and methods utilized to address the drug problem, i.e., the militarization of police forces, the death blow to Fourth Amendment protections, truly justified? When the very fabric of our Constitutional Republic is compromised, maybe not.
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/11-817_5if6.pdf