On April 23, 2008, the United States Supreme Court decided the case summarized below.
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In this issue:

(1) FOURTH AMENDMENT (The Fourth Amendment does not prohibit a search incident to arrest based on probable cause, even when the arrest should have been a mere citation under state law)

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OPINION
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Virginia v. Moore
Decided:  04/23/08
No. 06-1082

FOURTH AMENDMENT (The Fourth Amendment does not prohibit a search incident to arrest based on probable cause, even when the arrest should have been a mere citation under state law)

The United States Supreme Court held 9-0 (opinion by Scalia; concurrence by Ginsburg) that a search incident to an arrest based on probable cause does not violate the Fourth Amendment, even though Virginia state law prohibited the arrest.

In February 2003 David Moore (Moore) was arrested for driving with a suspended license.  Upon a search incident to arrest, police found 16 grams of crack cocaine in his vehicle.  Moore filed a pre-trial motion to suppress the evidence discovered during the search, claiming the search violated his Fourth Amendment rights.  Under Virginia law, driving without a license is generally not an arrestable offense.  Moore argued that because state law only authorized police to issue him a citation, the search of his vehicle was incident to citation, which is not allowed under the Fourth Amendment.  The trial court denied Moore’s motion and he was convicted after a bench trial.  The Virginia Supreme Court eventually reversed the conviction, adopting Moore’s reasoning that the Fourth Amendment does not permit search incident to a citation.  The United States Supreme Court (the Court) reversed, upholding the conviction.  The Court determined that the founders' did not intend the Fourth Amendment to incorporate state arrest rules.  Balancing the invasion of Moore’s privacy with the promotion of legitimate governmental interests, the Court held Moore’s arrest was constitutionally reasonable because the arresting officer had probable cause.

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