JUSTICES TO HEAR CASE ON WARRANTLESS SEARCH

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether police need a warrant
before searching a car suspected of having been used in a cocaine deal.

The case, from Florida, questions the extent to which police may examine
the automobiles they impound while investigating illegal drug activity.
While courts have upheld the right of police to seize the vehicles, a
question remains whether officers may then search them without first
getting a judge's permission.

The justices will review whether police violated the Fourth Amendment when
they conducted a warrantless search of Tyvessel White's automobile and
found cocaine in a ashtray. White, who had been arrested on an unrelated
charge, was subsequently charged with drug possession.

At his trial, White asked that the cocaine evidence be thrown out because
the police lacked a warrant when they searched his vehicle. Police,
believing the car had been used several months earlier to deliver illegal
drugs, seized the automobile after arresting White.

The trial judge permitted the warrantless search, and White was convicted.