JUSTICES EXPAND SEARCH RULES

WASHINGTON - Police can search the personal belongings of all passengers
inside a car when lawfully seeking criminal evidence against the driver,
the Supreme Court ruled today.

By a 6-3 vote in a Wyoming case, the court expanded the already
considerable police power to search vehicles without a warrant.

"Effective law enforcement would be appreciably impaired without the
ability to search a passenger's personal belongings when there is reason to
believe contraband or evidence of criminal wrongdoing is hidden in the
car," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the court.

In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said, "Today, instead of adhering to
the settled distinction between drivers and passengers, the court fashions
a new rule."

Under that rule, Stevens said, police might be able to search a taxi
passenger's briefcase if they had reason to believe the driver had a
syringe somewhere in his vehicle.

The case began as a routine traffic stop. A car driven by David Young was
stopped for speeding on Interstate 25 in Natrona County in the early
morning hours of July 23, 1995. After a Highway Patrol officer saw a
hypodermic syringe in Young's pocket, Young said he had used it to take drugs.

During the ensuing search, officers asked the car's passengers to get out
of the car. One of them, Sandra Houghton, left her purse on the car's back
seat. Inside it, police found drug paraphernalia and liquid methamphetamine.

She was convicted on a felony charge but appealed.

The Wyoming Supreme Court threw out her conviction last year, ruling police
were justified only in searching the car for drugs Young may have had with
him and could not search Houghton's purse. Today's decision reversed the
state court's ruling.

Joining Scalia in reinstating Houghton's conviction were Chief Justice
William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony M. Kennedy,
Clarence Thomas and Stephen G. Breyer.

Joining Stevens in dissent were Justices David H. Souter and Ruth Bader
Ginsburg.

In other cases today, the court:

* Said criminal defendants who plead guilty have a constitutional right to
remain silent at sentencing without judges holding it against them. Judges
cannot impose harsher punishment if defendants refuse to give details about
the crime, said the justices' 5-4 decision.

* Ruled prosecutors can't be sued for having lawyers searched and
interfering with their ability to advise a client appearing before a grand
jury. The court ruled unanimously that action by California prosecutors in
the Menendez brothers' murder case did not violate a lawyer's right to
practice his profession.

* Agreed to review the death sentence of a convicted Virginia killer. The
justices will decide whether death row inmate Terry Williams should get a
hearing on claims he was denied adequate legal help during his sentencing
trial.