SUPREME COURT RULING A BLOW TO FREEDOM

The US Supreme Court recently issued an opinion that could lead to an
increasingly more lenient policy concerning automobile searches and the
right to privacy. The court reached the decision with a 6-2 vote. This
ruling completely ignores past judgments handed down by the court.

Following the decision in Illinois v. Caballes, officers are now permitted
to bring drug-sniffing dogs to smell the outside of vehicles pulled over
for routine traffic stops - even if there is no probable cause.

This decision does not come as a surprise from the Rehnquist Court, which
has generally been a friend of police searches. The court has previously
ruled in favor of police policy on motor-vehicle searches, allowing greater
leniency in investigative situations.

Officers should not have an open-ended policy for vehicle searches, and
this ruling is one more step in violation of motorists' rights. Allowing
drug dogs to smell the outside of a vehicle in hopes of finding illegal
narcotics with nothing more than a vague hunch directly undermines the
Fourth Amendment right protecting against illegal search and seizure.

The Austin Police Department said the new ruling will not affect the way
APD officers search vehicles and that they will continue to require
consent. Other police departments should follow suit and honor the privacy
of motorists.

Opponents of the Supreme Court ruling, including the two lone dissenters -
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David H. Souter - say the use of drug dogs
will make routine traffic stops longer and more adversarial and broaden the
scope of police powers. Other opponents believe officers who have had a
long history of racial profiling will increasingly target minorities on the
road.

Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said
the Supreme Court's ruling has "yet to have an immediate effect on state
trooper policy for searching vehicles." But, in the future, "it may come
down to what local prosecutors tell the troopers they are most comfortable
with as far as legal searches." Mange said for now the DPS will continue to
search vehicles only with probable cause.

The Rehnquist Court may believe it's helping to defer illegal drug
possession by increasing the scope of warrant-less searches, and supporters
of the decision may believe it will aid motorist safety by keeping
law-breakers in check, police officers should not be able to continue to
assume every motorist on the road has something to hide.