Drug-Sniffing Dogs Violate Private Property Rights, SCOTUS Rulesselfnews Post In 2006, Miami-Dade police took a drug-sniffing dog to a home suspected of growing marijuana. The officers did not have a search warrant when they let the dog thoroughly sniff the premises. Based ona positive alert by their dog, the police thenobtained a search warrant using the dogs nose as probable cause.The tenant, JoelisJardines, was charged withcannabistrafficking. The Florida Supreme Court ruled in 2011 thatthe warrantless sniff test violatedJardinesFourth Amendment rights and the evidence against him was deemed inadmissible and the case moved on to the Supreme Court. In a 5-4 ruling, Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion that said At the amendments very core stands the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion. This right would be of little practical value if the states agents could stand in a homes porch or sidegardenand trawl for evidence with impunity; the right to retreat would be significantly diminished if the police could enter a mans property to observe his repose from just outside the front window, Scalia added. The Court said that police are allowed to approach a home and knock on the front door as any citizen could,But introducing a trained police dog to explore the area around the home in hopes of discovering incriminating evidence is something else. There is no customaryinvitationto do that. Was this activity a trespass? Yes, as the court holds today. Was it also an invasion of privacy? Yes, that as well, Justice Elena Kagan wrote a concurring opinion. In a similar case last month the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that drug-sniffing dogs could be used to provide probable cause for vehicle searches. It held that a Florida officer had probable cause based on the field performance of drug-sniffing dog. Incidentally, according to the Supreme Court it is not trespassing for police to walk around a vehicle with a trained dog on a public road, but it is trespassing when they snoop around your yard or front porch with a trained dog. Read other articles by selfnews Post Here 