Fourth Amendment Search Incident to Arrest in the Home: Why Gant’s New Vehicular Rules Should Supersede Chimel

摘要

The purpose of this article is to reveal and propose a solution for the current misguided search incident to arrest doctrine in homes and vehicles. As a result from modern Supreme Court cases, the rules controlling searches incident to arrest are inverted for homes and vehicles. Homes possess a higher expectation of privacy, but currently have less protection from invasive police searches than vehicles. This constitutionally incorrect doctrine is a consequence of Arizona v Gant’s decision to return vehicular searches to the original intent of Chimel v California. However, interpretations of Gant failed to make the same adjustment in home searches. To reconcile the doctrinal tension, the Courts have two options: 1) overturn Gant so that Chimel is once more the controlling doctrine for both homes and vehicles or 2) import Gant’s restricted reaching distance and evidence gathering prongs into the home to restore constitutional privacy expectations. This article proposes that the Courts need to import Gant’s two prongs because it will not only reconcile the doctrines, but it also acts as a corrective decision that re-tethers search incident to arrest doctrine to its original purpose.