Cite as: 526 U. S. 559 (1999)
Stevens, J., dissenting
In the context of property seizures by law enforcement authorities, the presumption might be overcome more easily in the absence of an accompanying privacy or liberty interest. Nevertheless, I would look to the warrant clause as a measure of reasonableness in such cases, United States v. United States Dist. Court for Eastern Dist. of Mich., 407 U. S. 297, 315 (1972), and the circumstances of this case do not convince me that the role of a neutral magistrate was dispensable.
The Court does not expressly disavow the warrant presumption urged by White and followed by the Florida Supreme Court, but its decision suggests that the exceptions have all but swallowed the general rule. To defend the officers' warrantless seizure, the State points to cases establishing an "automobile exception" to our ordinary demand for a warrant before a lawful search may be conducted. Each of those cases, however, involved searches of automobiles for contraband or temporary seizures of automobiles to effect such searches.3 Such intrusions comport with the practice
States, 333 U. S. 10, 13-14 (1948); Harris v. United States, 331 U. S. 145, 162 (1947) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting) ("[W]ith minor and severely confined exceptions, inferentially a part of the Amendment, every search and seizure is unreasonable when made without a magistrate's authority expressed through a validly issued warrant"), overruled in part by Chimel v. California, 395 U. S. 752 (1969); see also Shadwick v. Tampa, 407 U. S. 345, 348 (1972) (noting "the now accepted fact that someone independent of the police and prosecution must determine probable cause"); Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U. S. 471, 481-482 (1963).
3 See, e. g., Carroll v. United States, 267 U. S. 132, 153 (1925) (where the police have probable cause, "contraband goods concealed and illegally transported in an automobile or other vehicle may be searched for without a warrant"); United States v. Ross, 456 U. S. 798, 820, n. 26, 825 (1982) ("During virtually the entire history of our country—whether contraband was transported in a horse-drawn carriage, a 1921 roadster, or a modern automobile—it has been assumed that a lawful search of a vehicle would include a search of any container that might conceal the object of the search"); Wyoming v. Houghton, ante, at 300-301; Pennsylvania v. Labron, 518 U. S. 938, 940 (1996) (per curiam) ("If a car is readily mobile and probable cause exists to believe it contains contraband, the Fourth Amendment thus permits police to search the vehicle without more").
569
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007