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Pennsylvania v. Labron, 518 U.S. 938 (1996)
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General SummaryThis case is from a collection containing the full text of over 16,000 Supreme Court cases from 1793 to the present. The body of Supreme Court decisions are, effectively, the final interpretation of the Constitution. Only an amendment to the Constitution can permanently overturn an interpretation and this has happened only four times in American history.
Pennsylvania v. Labron, 518 U.S. 938 (1996)
Pennsylvania v. Labron Nos. 95-1691 and 95-1738 Decided July 1, 1996 518 U.S. 938
ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE
SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA, EASTERN DISTRICT
Syllabus
In No. 95-1691, police found cocaine when they searched the trunk of respondent Labron’s car after observing him and others engaging in drug transactions on a Philadelphia street. In No. 95-1738, a search of respondent Kilgore’s truck during a drug raid on his home turned up cocaine. In both cases, probable cause existed for the searches, but the police did not obtain warrants. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court suppressed the evidence seized in each case, holding that the Fourth Amendment requires police to obtain a warrant before searching an automobile unless exigent circumstances are present.
Held: the automobile exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement requires only that there be probable cause to conduct a search. This Court’s early cases establishing the automobile exception were based on the automobile’s ready mobility, an exigency sufficient to excuse failure to obt ain a search warrant once probable cause to conduct the search is clear. See, e.g., California v. Carney, 471 U.S. 386, 390-391. More recent cases provide a further justification: the individual’s reduced privacy expectation in an automobile owing to its pervasive regulation. Ibid. This Court’s jurisdiction in Labron’s case is secure. The Commonwealth’s automobile jurisprudence appears to be interwoven with federal law, and the adequacy and independence of any possible state law ground for the exception is not clear from the face of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s opinion. Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032, 1040-1041. Since the opinion in Kilgore’s case rests on the explicit conclusion that the officers’ conduct violated the Fourth Amendment, this Court has jurisdiction to review that judgment as well.
Certiorari granted; No. 95-1691, 543 Pa. 86, 669 A.2d 917, and No. 95-1738, 544 Pa. 439, 677 A.2d 311, reversed and remanded.
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Chicago: U.S. Supreme Court, "Syllabus," Pennsylvania v. Labron, 518 U.S. 938 (1996) in 518 U.S. 938 Original Sources, accessed November 22, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=57KV67XPTHYWQVK.
MLA: U.S. Supreme Court. "Syllabus." Pennsylvania v. Labron, 518 U.S. 938 (1996), in 518 U.S. 938, Original Sources. 22 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=57KV67XPTHYWQVK.
Harvard: U.S. Supreme Court, 'Syllabus' in Pennsylvania v. Labron, 518 U.S. 938 (1996). cited in 1996, 518 U.S. 938. Original Sources, retrieved 22 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=57KV67XPTHYWQVK.
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