Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on when police can use a drug sniffing dog to search your home. Previously, I blogged about this case and the ruling came out today.
This case started out in Florida also. This time, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Florida Supreme Court’s decision in Florida v. Jardines. In that case the Florida Supreme Court affirmed the suppression of a search of a home based upon a canine sniff at the door of the home. The marijuana seized pursuant to the drug dog’s alert was suppressed and thrown out of court resulting in the criminal charges being dismissed.
What does that mean for your Polk county criminal case or for you as a citizen? That the U.S. Supreme Court sided with personal rights over law enforcement’s use of enhanced searching technologies. This decision protects all Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures of their home. There has been a constant eroding of our rights as Americans against searches, but finally we have the court stand up fro our right to be free from searches in our homes and our expectation of privacy in our homes is protected.
The decision will affect law enforcement’s enhanced searching capabilities, other than officers’ own senses, to find out what is going on inside a person’s home. This includes GPS technology and heat imaging technology commonly used to detect marijuana grow houses. The police or sheriff must obtain a warrant before it may intrude upon private property in order to search a person’s home and gather evidence of a crime. By finding the conduct of law enforcement in this case to have violated a person’s constitutional right to protection from unwarranted search and seizure, the Supreme Court made clear today that the Fourth Amendment is not dead.
Law enforcement may not use enhanced search technologies to intrude upon private spaces without a warrant because a man’s home is his castle and the police cannot intrude on that fundamental right with the purpose of gathering incriminating evidence without a warrant.
If you have been arrested, talk to an experienced and knowledgeable
Polk county criminal defense lawyer.
Thomas C. Grajek - 863-688-4606
Handling all Polk County felony and misdemeanor drug charges including possession, delivery, sale, and trafficking in controlled substances cases.