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66 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 556 (1997-1998)
Car Wars: The Fourth Amendment's Death on the Highway

handle is hein.journals/gwlr66 and id is 564 raw text is: Essay Car Wars: The Fourth Amendment's Death on the Highway David A. Harris* Introduction The Supreme Court's Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, as tattered and full of holes as a beggar's winter coat, calls into question whether the remain- ing protection it offers to citizens against government searches and seizures has any value. In no area is this question presented more sharply than in cases involving cars, their drivers, and their passengers. Indeed, it is no exag- geration to say that in cases involving cars, the Fourth Amendment is all but dead. In its last two Terms alone, the Court has increased police discretion over cars and their drivers in three different cases. In Whren v. United States,' the Court resolved a split among the federal circuits by ruling that any time a police officer sees a traffic violation, the officer has probable cause and may stop the vehicle.2 The rule applies even if no reasonable officer would have made the stop to enforce the traffic laws, and even if the stop was only a pretext to enable the officer to investigate a mere hunch or intuition.3 In Ohio v. Robinette,4 the Court said that when the police stop a driver and have decided to release him, they need not precede a request for consent to * Eugene N. Balk Professor of Law and Values, University of Toledo College of Law. J.D. 1983, Yale Law School; LL.M. 1988 (Trial Advocacy), Georgetown. My thanks to John A. Barrett, Jr., Daniel Steinbock, and Rebecca Zeitlow for their help with earlier drafts, and to Michael Morgan for research assistance. 1 116 S. Ct. 1769 (1996). 2 See id. at 1776-77. 3 See id. at 1774-75; see also infra notes 20-23 and accompanying text. 4 117 S. Ct. 417 (1996). March 1998 Vol. 66 No. 3

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