The Minnesota Supreme Court has set a new standard for when law enforcement can legally search a vehicle.
In an opinion filed Wednesday morning, the state’s highest court said the smell of marijuana, by itself, isn’t enough of a reason for law enforcement to search someone’s vehicle.
The decision stems from a July 2021 traffic stop in Litchfield, where an officer stopped a vehicle for an auxiliary light law violation. After approaching the vehicle, the officer noticed the smell of marijuana. While the driver denied having any marijuana, another officer approached and also smelled marijuana, court documents state.
Based solely on the smell, the second officer told the driver that gave them probable cause to search the vehicle, and a search resulted in the officers finding a small amount of methamphetamine and paraphernalia.
The driver was charged with fifth-degree drug possession but he moved to suppress the evidence, saying the smell of marijuana wasn’t enough of a reason to search his vehicle. The district court agreed, noting the state’s standard doesn’t allow vehicle searches based solely on the smell of alcohol so that same standard should apply to the smell of marijuana, according to court records.
Without the evidence found in the search, the charge against the driver was dismissed. The state appealed and the appellate court upheld the district court’s ruling, which led the state to petition the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Court documents note the…
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