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Court opens back door to traffic stop protests

A passenger in a vehicle that gets pulled over can challenge the police.

By WASHINGTON POST
Published June 19, 2007

WASHINGTON - A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday that passengers in vehicles pulled over by the police have the same rights as drivers to challenge the legality of the traffic stop when it results in an arrest.

The court said that passengers, like the driver, are "seized" by police when the vehicle they are traveling in is stopped and are thus covered by the Fourth Amendment and allowed to challenge unreasonable searches and seizures.

In the case before the court, a California passenger, Bruce Brendlin, was charged with drug possession after drug paraphernalia was found in the car. He argued that the discovery of the evidence was the result of an unconstitutional seizure because police lacked probable cause to make the traffic stop.

The California Supreme Court said Brendlin had no ground to make such a challenge because he had not been seized by the police and had given tacit approval to the search by staying in the car rather than leaving the scene.

The U.S. Supreme Court said that made no sense.

"We think that in these circumstances any reasonable passenger would have understood the police officers to be exercising control to the point that no one in the car was free to depart without police permission, " Justice David Souter wrote for the court. During the case's oral arguments, several justices expressed that opinion.

Souter said that to go along with the California court's interpretation would "invite police officers to stop cars with passengers regardless of probable cause or reasonable suspicion of anything illegal."

The court's decision in the case involving Brendlin was in line with the interpretations of all lower federal and state courts, with the exception of the high courts in California, Colorado and Washington.

Fast Facts:

Coming up

Before adjourning at the end of June, the justices will announce about a dozen more decisions, including:

- The use of race in school assignments.

- Whether taxpayers have the right to sue over government grants to faith-based social service organizations.

- Several First Amendment cases, including a challenge to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance act.

[Last modified June 19, 2007, 00:37:14]