The Supreme Court handed down Arizona v. Gant this morning, imposing a new limitation on the search incident to arrest power when the police want to search an automobile. Under New York v. Belton, the rule has been that the police can search the passenger area of a car when they arrest an occupant or recent occupant of the vehicle. Today, in a vote of 5-4, the Supreme Court added a new limitation: The police can search a car following arrest only if they could have a reasonable belief 1) that the person arrested "could have accessed his car at the time of the search" or 2)"that evidence of the offense for which he was arrested might have been found therein."

  In the majority opinion by Justice Stevens, the Court concludes that these limitations are proper because the absence of these limitations simply gives the police too much power, power that cannot be justified by the reasonableness requirement of the Fourth Amendment. Stare decisis does not prevail because it is pretty clear to the majority that searches absent an evidentiary or police safety nexus are unconstitutional, and that the police are just going too far relying on the traditional broad reading of Belton.

  Stay tuned for more Gant-blogging throughout the day.