Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
Random Searching By Government	Penny	07/22/05
If the police stop you, say on New Year's Eve, checking for drunk drivers at a spot where everybody is being pulled over randomly (i.e., without probable cause), and find pot on your car seat, can you be arrested? You're not drunk. I assume you can, but what about the protection of the 4th Amendment since there was no probable cause to begin with? Just a random search.
Clarification/Follow-up by Jim.McGinness on 07/22/05 9:29 pm: We're looking for a balance between giving law-enforcement authorities the tools they need to protect us from criminal activity and protecting the citizens from the tyranny of arbitrary exercise of power by those same authorities. http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20030107_fletcher.html
Answered By		Answered On
Jim.McGinness		07/22/05
If the pot is "in plain sight", there is not much support for this to have been an illegal search. The "random checks" are still sometimes controversial, but if they see something illegal, they're certainly within their authority to take action.

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