PRIVACY PREVAILS

Assume that you're riding in someone else's car, and the driver or
another passenger lights up a joint. Then the driver goes through a
red light and is stopped by a police officer, who recognizes the smell
of marijuana and arrests everyone in the vehicle. The Washington
Supreme Court on Thursday ruled unanimously that a 29-year-old
precedent allowing searches and arrests of all occupants in that
circumstance violates the privacy provisions of the state
constitution.

It was the correct ruling. Justice Charles Johnson wrote that privacy
protections "do not fade away or disappear within the confines of an
automobile." David Zuckerman, attorney for the defendant in the case,
which stems from a 2006 traffic stop in Skagit County, said the
practice has "led to an awful lot of innocent people getting
handcuffed by the side of the road just because they happened to be in
a car that smells of marijuana."

The ruling does not bar officers from searching cars that smell of
drugs and, as a result of the search, arrest one or more riders. And
an arrest may occur of the occupant of a single-occupant vehicle in
these cases where the smell of marijuana is apparent.

Good for the court. This was its second recent unanimous pro-privacy
ruling. On May 22 it ruled that acting in an odd or nervous manner in
public is not sufficient reason for an officer to detain and pat down
someone.