Coolidge v. New Hampshire case brief

Coolidge v. New Hampshire 

United States Supreme Court, 1979.

Facts:

-A young babysitter was called by Coolidge during a snowstorm.  She was found dead 8 days later.  -Police questioned Coolidge, he produced guns and agreed to a lie detector test. 
-On the date of the test, he did not show up, and officers came to his house. 
-The officers told the wife he was not home and was in trouble.  They asked her for his guns and clothes he may have been wearing.

-Police got a search warrant for the house and car from the Attorney General, and impounded the car, also kicking the wife out of the house.  They kept and searched the car over the course of the year.  The officers found a little gun residue in the car.

Issue:

-Whether the police could take the D’s car and search it at the station whenever they felt like it, when the warrant was merely for a search of the car.

Holding:

-The police could not legally seize the car, remove it, and search it at their leisure without a warrant to authorize the full search.

Procedural history:

-Lower courts allowed the search. Reversed for D.

Reasoning:

• "The word 'automobile' is not a talisman in whose presence the 4^th Amendment fades away and disappears."
• Chambers:  Warrantless searches of a car are acceptable when they are of an automobile stopped on the highway, and when exigent circumstances exist.
• The police could not legally seize the car, remove it, and search it at their leisure without a warrant to authorize such a search.

Dissent:

• The only reason that the case should be reversed is because of the long time the car was detained, not because the officers can not do whatever they want with a car.

Notes:

• Cardwell v. Lewis:  Plurality stated: cars are more protected on private property.
• United States v. Johns:  Court refused to place a time limit on what is reasonable or excessive.