Pubdate: Thu, 01 Nov 2012
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2012 The Sacramento Bee
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/0n4cG7L1
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Author: Michael Doyle

JUSTICES EYE DRUG DOGS' USE

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court justices seemed ready Wednesday to adjust 
the legal leash on drug-sniffing dogs, in two high-profile cases 
arising out of Florida.

With a battery of pointed questions, justices voiced skepticism about 
a Florida Supreme Court ruling that imposed strict criteria for 
determining when a dog is qualified to help make a drug bust. At the 
same time, court conservatives joined liberals in suggesting that a 
police canine sniffing at the front door of a suspected drug house 
may be a search that triggers constitutional protections.

"It seems to me crucial that this officer went onto the portion of 
the house as to which there is privacy, and used a means of 
discerning what was in that house that should not have been 
available," Justice Antonin Scalia said at one point.

The two cases heard separately Wednesday morning will help shape law 
enforcement agencies' growing canine dependency. Twenty-four states 
including Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and Idaho  have sided with 
Florida law enforcement officials.

While tracking questions can lead court observers astray, a majority 
of the justices who spoke Wednesday sounded protective of the privacy 
inherent in a home.

In a previous case that involved thermal imagers used to locate 
household marijuana-growing operations, the court said obtaining 
details of the home's interior was a search that required a warrant 
under the Fourth Amendment. Similar reasoning could apply to a dog's 
finely tuned nose, some justices hinted Wednesday.

"Doesn't that mean that what's in your home that's not visible to the 
public has an expectation of privacy as well?" Justice Sonia 
Sotomayor asked attorney Gregory C. Garre, who is representing 
Florida in both cases.

Garre's response that people can't expect privacy "when it comes to 
contraband" was flatly rejected by Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Decisions in the two cases are expected by the end of the court's 
term next June.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom