The Holding of Gant, and Some Initial Questions as To Its Application::
I'm really interested in what the new Fourth Amendment rule of Arizona v. Gant really means, and how it will apply in practice. Here's the version of the holding on page 10:
We hold that the Chimel rationale authorizes police to search a vehicle incident to a recent occupant's arrest only when the arrestee is unsecured and within reaching distance of the passenger compartment at the time of the search. . . . [w]e also conclude that circumstances unique to the vehicle context justify a search incident to a lawful arrest when it is"reasonable to believe evidence relevant to the crime of arrest might be found in the vehicle.
Here's the conclusion on Page 11, applying this standard to the facts:
Because police could not reasonably have believed either that Gant could have accessed his car at the time of the search or that evidence of the offense for which he was arrested might have been found therein, the search in this case was unreasonable.
Here's Page 18, restating the standard:
Police may search a vehicle incident to a recent occupant's arrest only if the arrestee is within reaching distance of the passenger compartment at the time of the search or it is reasonable to believe the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest.
Do you read the rule as just referring to "reaching distance", or as also requiring that the arrestee is "unsecured"? Or does unsecured mean handcuffed or put in a locked squad car, and do we assume that once a person is handcuffed they no longer have any reaching distance at all? If that's right, does that mean that as soon as a person is handcuffed, the police cannot conduct a search under Belton? What is a reaching distance -- is that a physical concept of distance, sort like the grabbable area test for search incident to arrest for a person, or is it measured by reference to whether a person could have grab a gun in the car?