A big day for search and seizure fans via today’s SCOTUS opinions

The US Supreme Court handed down four merits opinions in previously argued cases today, and two of them involve criminal justice issues. Because the cases involve the front-end of the CJ system (police practices) rather than the back end (sentencing), for now I will be content just to report on the SCOTUSblog reports on these two rulings (with a few tweaks for clarity):

First opinion — Harris (dog sniffs) — Kagan for the Court reversing the Florida S. Ct. unanimously.

The Court holds that because training and testing records supported the dog’s reliability, and the defendant failed to undermine that evidence, there was probable cause to search the defendant’s truck….  Here’s a photo of Aldo, the dog in that case.

Here’s the opinion in Florida v. Harris….  The Harris opinion does not refer to the Jardines opinion, so we may not get it today after all. From the Harris opinion: “The Florida Supreme Court flouted this established approach to determining probable cause.” (Ouch.)…

Third opinion — Bailey v. United States — per Kennedy, the Second Circuit is reversed. The vote is 6-3, with Breyer, Thomas, and Alito dissenting….

The Court holds that Michigan v. Summers is limited to the immediate vicinity of the premises. Justice Scalia writes separately.  Kagan and Ginsburg join both the Court’s opinion and the Scalia concurrence.

This was the case about searching someone on the basis of a warrant to search a house, when they have left the premises.  Here is the opinion in Bailey v. US….

The Court will have more opinions at 10 am tomorrow. Again, we do not know which ones or how many there will be. The other dog-sniffing case is 11-564, Fla. v. Jardines.  It did not come out today.