Ninth Circuit Applies Gant

Here is a link to the Ninth Circuit Blog summary of United States v. Ruckes, which applies Arizona v. Gant: http://www.circuit9.blogspot.com/

To summarize the summary: The police stop a guy for speeding, find out his license is suspended, arrest him and search his car. No brainer, right? Search unconstitutional under Gant. End of story.

But wait, there's more. Before the search, the police ask the driver if there was anyone who could take possession of the car; if not, the car would be impounded under state law. He didn't have anyone to get the car, so the police searched the vehicle as a search incident to arrest and as an inventory search. Naturally, there was crack and a pistol inside. While the Circuit Court found that Gant prohibited the search incident to arrest, it upheld the search under the inevitable discovery doctrine as the inventory search was valid.

Lesson learned: We need to make the state prove up the requirements for an inventory search when they argue inevitable discovery. In many cases they won't be able to do so.

You can always find a link to the Ninth Circuit Blog in "Useful Sites," which is located in the column to the right. You can get to the opinion itself here: http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/11/09/08-30088.pdf