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Essay on Arizona vs Gant: The Fourth Ammendment and Search Warrants

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Facts: The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and states that an officer to have both probable cause and a search warrant in order to search a person or their property. There are several exceptions to this requirement. One exception to this is when an officer makes an arrest; the officer can search an arrestee and the area within his immediate control without first obtaining a search warrant. This case brings forth the extent of an officer’s power in searching an arrestee’s vehicle after he has been arrested and placed in the back of a patrol car. On August 25, 1999, the police responded to an anonymous tip of drug activity at a particular residence. When they arrived on scene, Rodney Gant answered the door …show more content…

The State then appealed Gant’s case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Issue: Does the Fourth Amendment require that police officers, when arresting someone who was an occupant in a vehicle, show either a threat to officer safety or a need to protect evidence related to the crime they are being arrested for make it legal for an officer to conduct a search of that vehicle without a search warrant? Holding: No, the police are authorized to search a vehicle incident to an arrest only when the person being arrested is unsecured and within reaching distance of the vehicle’s passenger compartment at the time the search is conducted. Argument for Arizona:  Officer safety and evidence protection are very important interests. If essential, law enforcement should temporarily be allowed to limit the person being arrested right to privacy to support these interests.  Thornton vs US clearly establishes that vehicles are exceptional due to being mobile and the fact that evidence of a crime in the vehicle is at risk of being lost or destroyed. Officers should therefore have more power to collect and protect evidence of criminal activity from a vehicle.  New York vs Belton gave officers the power to search a vehicle during an arrest as long as the person arrested stayed on the scene of the arrest and the search performed in a timely manner to the arrest, even if the person arrested cannot gain access the

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