The Supreme Court on Wednesday is set to hold oral arguments concerning the novel question of whether judges may issue search warrants for private residences when a drug-sniffing dog outside the home reacts as if it smells drugs inside.
In a second case involving drug-sniffing dogs, the justices also will entertain arguments Wednesday concerning a Florida Supreme Court decision allowing defendants to challenge the authenticity of a drug sniff, by bringing up past evidence of false alerts and how well-trained the dog and handler were.
The home-sniff case, also arriving from the Florida Supreme Court, tests a decade-old U.S. Supreme Court precedent in which the justices ruled that police need a warrant to use thermal-imaging devices outside a house to detect marijuana-growing operations, saying it amounted to a search. In that case, the high court ruled in 2001 that “rapidly advancing technology” threatens the core of the Fourth Amendment “right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion.”
via Wired
Image: Miami-Dade County Police Department K-9 “Franky” has discovered more than 2.5 tons of marijuana.
Photo: Courtesy of Miami-Dade County Police Department
