The Supreme Court ruled this week that police could not bring a drug-sniffing dog onto a suspect’s property without a warrant. In a 5–4 decision, the court decided that using a dog to sniff the interior of a home, even if it did not enter, constituted a search under the Fourth Amendment. The ruling upheld a Florida Supreme Court decision to invalidate a warrant granted after a drug-sniffing dog detected marijuana inside a house from the front porch. A policeman can knock on a door without a warrant, wrote Justice Antonin Scalia, “but introducing a trained police dog to explore the area around the home in hopes of discovering incriminating evidence is something else.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
August 24 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday's political cartoons include Putin at Donald Trump's circus, gallons of whitewash, and a foldable cartoon
-
5 Post Office-approved cartoons about mail-in votingCartoons Artists take on reverse logic, Putin's election advice, and more
-
The battle of the weight-loss drugsTalking Point Can Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly regain their former stock market glory? A lot is riding on next year's pills
