Q: Can police search my car without consent due to MN ruling?
I'm concerned about how a recent Minnesota Supreme Court ruling, which stated that the interior of a car on public roads is public property, might affect my rights during a traffic stop. Specifically, I want to know if police officers can now search my vehicle without my consent.
A: No, the decision yesterday does not open the floodgates to suspicionless motor vehicle searches. There are certainly circumstances where your car can be searched without consent, for example a search incident to arrest, but cops are not going to be able to search cars whenever they want and without legal justification.
A: No. The recent Minnesota Supreme Court decision, State v. Bee, A23-1257 (Minnesota February 19, 2025). decided an issue of the interpretation of statutory language - the meaning of "public place" in the context of a criminal charge for carrying in a public place, where the "public place" was the interior of a private motor vehicle on a public road. The court decided that if the motor vehicle was on or in a "public place" the fact that an item was found inside a private motor vehicle did not matter. The case did not involve or address Fourth Amendment search issues, nor did any party raise those issues before the court. So, while police officers may sometimes lawfully search a person's vehicle without consent (depending on circumstances), this case did not change the law relating automobile searches at all.
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