# Supreme Court Sides With Police in Traffic Stop Arrests



## Gil (Jun 15, 1998)

Supreme Court Sides With Police in Traffic Stop Arrests
12/15/2003

The Associated Press 
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court made it easier Monday for police to arrest all occupants of a car when hidden drugs are found during a traffic stop. 

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, writing for the unanimous court, said that in a small space like a car, "it was reasonable for the officer to infer a common enterprise" among a driver and passengers during a 1999 stop in Maryland. 

Rehnquist said police had probable cause to suspect that passenger Joseph Jermaine Pringle knew that there was $763 in the glove compartment and five baggies of cocaine in an armrest in the backseat. 

An appeals court had thrown out Pringle's drug conviction and 10-year prison sentence on grounds that his arrest violated the Constitution's Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches or seizures. 

The Supreme Court reversed the decision. 

The court had been asked to consider whether it was an unconstitutional stretch for the officer to link the front-seat passenger to drugs found in a back armrest, and then to arrest all three people in the car after the early morning traffic stop in Baltimore County. 

Rehnquist said that when no one in the car acknowledged that the contraband was theirs, the officers had grounds to arrest everyone. 

"The quantity of drugs and cash in the car indicated the likelihood of drug dealing," Rehnquist wrote. 

The case is Maryland v. Pringle, 02-809.


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## mpd61 (Aug 7, 2002)

Thanks for the update Gil!
8)


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