Justices to Rule on Drug Dog at Traffic Stop
By LINDA GREENHOUSE, New York Times

Published: April 6, 2004



ASHINGTON, April 5 � The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether the police need a special reason to subject a car they have stopped for a traffic violation to a drug-sniffing dog.

The case is an appeal by the State of Illinois from a ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court. That court found last year by a vote of 4 to 3 that use of a drug-sniffing dog, without any particular reason to suspect that the car contained drugs, had unconstitutionally broadened the scope of a routine traffic stop. In this case, the dog alerted the police to a large quantity of marijuana in the trunk.


Hey, I thought the air around a car was free. Isn't the dog's nose just an extension of the officer? What if the officer himself sniffed around the car?