Court Opinion

ID: 9554023
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:40:04.78709+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:32:49.901306
License: Public Domain

Justice SCHROEDER,
SPECIALLY CONCURRING.
I concur in the Court’s decision. However, the decision should not be read to restrict police from taking those steps necessary to assure their safety and the safety of others when dealing with a passenger in a vehicle in which the driver has been arrested. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). This point was acknowledged by counsel for Newsom at the hearing on the motion to suppress:
In this particular case, she started to get out of the car with the purse. They told her to leave the purse there. They knew they were going to search the car for weapons and contraband. So that’s just a way of getting around it. What they should have done as she started to get out with her purse, they should have stopped her right there, opened up the purse to see if there’s weapons there, gave her her purse back and then questioned her. But they didn’t do that because they know they’re going to search the car for weapons and contraband. If they want to search the purse, all they’ve got to do is tell her to leave it behind. And they do that to try to get around the warrantless requirement.
So I don’t think the court should fall for that. I mean, that’s a trick as old as the ages. It’s the procedure that’s established. But if they don’t follow the correct procedure, that is, let her get out of the car with the purse — they offered no justification for her not doing that. And then they can look in the purse. If there is a weapon there, they can seize it. But there is absolutely no reason for them to search the purse other than the fact that they told *701her to leave it behind in the ear and then they searched the car, searched the purse, found the drugs. I think that’s suppressible.
Justice SILAK CONCURS.