The case involved Rodney J. Gant, who was arrested by Tucson, Arizona, police on an outstanding warrant for driving with a suspended driver’s license. Police arrested Gant in a friend's yard after he had parked his vehicle and was walking away. Gant and all other suspects on the scene were then secured in police patrol cars. The officers then searched Gant's vehicle. After finding a weapon and a bag of cocaine, they also charged him with possession of a narcotic drugfor sale and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Arguments before the Court
Thomas Frank Jacobs, lead counsel for Rodney Gant, argued the case before the U.S. Supreme Court on October 7, 2008. Jacobs argued that an unreasonable expansion of a limited authority to search vehicles incident to arrest provided by the Supreme Court's 1981 decision in New York v. Belton was occurring. Lower courts were allowing searches after the initial justifications for setting aside the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement had ceased to exist, relying on a so-called bright-line rule of "if arrest, then search." Jacobs argued, and the Court ultimately agreed, that such application of the Belton exception caused the exception to "swallow the rule," allowing unconstitutional searches.
Amici curiae
A group of legal scholars, including University of Iowalaw professorJames Tomkovicz, wrote an amicus curiae brief asking the court to overturn the 1981 case, New York v. Belton, that granted police the authority to search a person's vehicle even if that person is not in the vehicle. According to Tomkovicz, Belton failed to meet the constitutional standard of probable cause.
Opinion of the Court
In an opinion delivered by Justice Stevens, the Supreme Court held that police may search the passenger compartment of a vehicle, incident to a recent occupant's arrest only if it is reasonable to believe that the arrestee might access the vehicle at the time of the search, or that the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest. Justice Scalia wrote a concurring opinion, stating that "we should simply abandon the Belton-Thornton charade of officer safety and overrule those cases. I would hold that a vehicle search incident to arrest is ipso facto 'reasonable' only when the object of the search is evidence of the crime for which the arrest was made, or of another crime that the officer has probable cause to believe occurred." Justice Alito wrote a dissent joined by Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Kennedy, and Justice Breyer in part, saying that the court could not overrule New York v. Belton and Thornton v. United States, 541 U. S. 615. Justice Breyer wrote a separate dissent.
