From today's oral argument in Arizona v. Gant, the case where Arizona said its police officers can conduct a warrantless search of someone's car after that person has already been cuffed. (Fatty wanted a blog mention, so I'm giving it to her here. Keep reading, Fatty. It's more than a synopsis of a Supreme Court case.) Arguing for Arizona, Joseph Maziarz said the person who is cuffed in the back of the squad car could still pose a threat to the officers.
The oral arguments made me laugh. I usually like Scalia's comments, but Souter wins this one:
MR. MAZIARZ: In -- in our reply brief we pointed out in 2007 there were 93 reported cases where arrestees cuffed in the back of a patrol car escaped. So it -- it's very possible this could happen. Now, you have to know --
JUSTICE SOUTER: Do you know of any one of those cases in which the officer got hurt? Do you know of any one of those cases in which the person who got out of the police cruiser made a beeline for -- for his own car?
In fact, so far as I know, we are -- we are not even sure that those people came out of automobiles before they were put in a police cruiser. But do you know of any case in which they went to their own car and tried to get a gun to hurt the cop?
MR. MAZIARZ: In one of the cases the arrestee went to his vehicle but simply took off and led the police on a high-speed chase, but none in -- where they went to the vehicle and grabbed a weapon.
JUSTICE SOUTER: Did he -- did he have --have his hands handcuffed behind his back?
MR. MAZIARZ: Yes. Yes, he had --
JUSTICE SOUTER: And he was able to drive the car?
MR. MAZIARZ: Yes. Well, Your Honor, it's my understanding -- I'm not an expert on this, but it's my understanding from reading some of these cases --
JUSTICE SOUTER: I'd really like to meet him.
JUSTICE SCALIA: I wouldn't. I'll bet you that in most of those cases the -- the felon got out the other -- other door of the car while the policeman was searching the vehicle.
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