Expansion of the Automobile Exception to the Warrant Requirement: Police Discretion Replaces the Neutral and Detached Magistrate

Authors

Steven D. Soden

Abstract

As illegal drug usage continues to be an increasing concern of this country, the United States Supreme Court has lessened Fourth Amendment constraints on law enforcement officials. Because of the nature of drugs (minute amounts are illegal and thus they are easily transported and hidden), the allowable scope of searches is a critical issue in the "war on drugs." Regardless of whether the Court had drugs in mind when it set forth this new rule, it is drug related offenses where this decision will have the visible impact.

Recommended Citation

Steven D. Soden, Expansion of the Automobile Exception to the Warrant Requirement: Police Discretion Replaces the Neutral and Detached Magistrate, 57 Mo. L. Rev. (1992)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/mlr/vol57/iss2/14