Rodriguez v. United States (575 U.S. 348)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 21, 2015 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 575 U.S. 348 · 135 S. Ct. 1609
- Decided
- April 21, 2015
- Term
- October Term 2014
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Ginsburg
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice GINSBURGdelivered the opinion of the Court. In Illinois v. Caballes,543 U.S. 405, 125 S.Ct. 834, 160 L.Ed.2d 842 (2005), this Court held that a dog sniff conducted during a lawful traffic stop does not violate the Fourth Amendment's proscription of unreasonable seizures. This case presents the question whether the Fourth Amendment tolerates a dog sniff conducted after completion of a traffic stop. We hold that a police stop exceeding the time needed to handle the matter for which the stop was made violates the Constitution's shield against unreasonable seizures. A seizure justified only by a police-observed traffic violation, therefore, "become[s] unlawful if it is prolonged beyond the time reasonably required to complete th[e] mission" of issuing a ticket for the violation. Id., at 407, 125 S.Ct. 834. The Court so recognized in Caballes,and we adhere to the line drawn in that decision. I Just after midnight on March 27, 2012, police officer Morgan Struble observed a Mercury Mountaineer veer slowly onto the shoulder of Nebraska State Highway 275 for one or two seconds and then jerk back onto the road. Nebraska law prohibits driving on highway shoulders, see Neb.Rev.Stat. § 60-6,142 (2010), and on that basis, Struble pulled the Mountaineer over at 12:06 a.m. Struble is a K-9 officer with the Valley Police Department in Nebraska, and his dog Floyd was in his patrol car…
Excerpt of a 16,324-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.