Local law officials react to SCOTUS allowing illegal evidence in court
Illegally obtained evidence can now be used in court. The U.S. Supreme Court came to this ruling on Monday with a 5-to-3 decision. This ruling was based on a case called Utah v. Strieff.
In the case there was an anonymous tip of drug activity in a house. Police confronted a man walking from the house, checked his records, searched him without a warrant, and found a small bag of meth.
“An anonymous tip, which is what they had here, by itself is not reasonable suspicion,” explained Daneil Clark, the Bonneville County prosecutor.
The stop was deemed unlawful, but now the Supreme Court is saying the evidence found in that illegal search can be used in court.
“The thing in this case I think that was in question was the reason the person was contacted in the first place,” said Sgt. Bryan Lovell of the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office. “The only thing the court’s answering is should that evidence be kicked out because of it,” said Clark.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor fears allowing evidence to be used from an illegal search will expand police power and put a target on the backs of minorities.
But regardless of race, color, or background, many people can be at risk.
Nevertheless many states, like Idaho, have their own constitutions in where they give citizens an extra layer of protection under the Fourth Amendment.
“The Fourth Amendment– it gives you a floor of constitutional protection. Each state is allowed to apply their own analysis and give a citizen greater protection than the fourth amendment does,” said Clark.
People may be worried police now have the power to stop anyone even if you have done nothing wrong. However in Bonneville County, that is not how police stops operate and they are not going to start that way now.
“I don’t see this changing what the police are doing,” said Clark. “I don’t think it gives us the ability to just willy nilly stop anybody for no reason at all. I think we’re still going to do business the same way.We don’t train to do unlawful contacts. We train to do things within the bounds of the law– and that’s our job,” Sgt. Lovell seconds.
The state of Idaho is going to have to deal with this question itself and put it’s interpreatations into the state constitution.
The Fourth Amendment does not talk about dismissing illegally obtained evidence– that was created by the U.S. Supreme Court.
