{"id":1834,"date":"2013-02-20T18:42:51","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T18:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/?p=1834"},"modified":"2013-02-20T18:42:51","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T18:42:51","slug":"supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court sides with drug-sniffing dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Robert Barnes<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a0 Feb 19, 2013 10:20 PM EST\u00a0 <\/abbr>The Washington Post<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with a drug-sniffing German shepherd named Aldo in ruling that police do not have to extensively document a dog\u2019s expertise to justify relying on the animal to search someone\u2019s vehicle.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
The unanimous court overturned a decision<\/a> by the Florida Supreme Court. That court had thrown out a 2006 search of a man\u2019s truck after Aldo \u201calerted\u201d to the smell of drugs, saying police must compile detailed evidence of the dog\u2019s reliability before probable cause to search the vehicle is established.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\u00a0Justice Elena Kagan said the Florida court\u00a0 had gone too far, and suggested that proper training and certification of the dog \u2014 rather than how it has performed in the field \u2014 might be enough for law enforcement\u2019s purposes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\u201cThe question \u2014 similar to every inquiry into probable cause \u2014 is whether all the facts surrounding a dog\u2019s alert, viewed through the lens of common sense, would make a reasonably prudent person think that a search would reveal contraband or evidence of a crime,\u201d Kagan wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cA sniff is up to snuff when it meets that test. . . . Aldo\u2019s did.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case was one of two the court accepted regarding drug-sniffing dogs <\/a>from Florida. It has not decided the other, which concerns whether police may bring a dog to someone\u2019s home and then use the dog\u2019s \u201calert\u201d to the presence of drugs as probable cause for getting a search warrant.<\/p>\n

At oral arguments<\/a>, that case \u2014 involving a chocolate Lab named Franky \u2014 caused considerably more debate among the justices.<\/p>\n

Aldo\u2019s case came from the Florida Panhandle, where Officer William Wheetley stopped Clayton Harris because of an expired license plate. Wheetley found Harris nervous and shaking, and the man refused Wheetley\u2019s request to search his truck. Wheetley brought out Aldo, and the dog alerted to the smell of something on the driver\u2019s side door handle.<\/p>\n

Wheetley used the alert as probable cause to search the vehicle and found the ingredients for making methamphetamine. Wheetley was convicted, but the Florida Supreme Court reversed the conviction.<\/p>\n

The Florida high court, citing a growing body of evidence that dogs often make mistakes or are influenced by their handlers, said judges had to consider a long list of specific findings, including how the dogs perform in the field.<\/p>\n

Kagan said that went too far, and was at odds with previous U.S. Supreme Court decisions that prescribed \u201ca more flexible, \u00adall-things-considered\u201d approach. She noted that defense lawyers who had specific concerns about a dog\u2019s qualification could still make such a case to a judge.<\/p>\n

The case is Florida v. Harris<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robert Barnes,\u00a0\u00a0 Feb 19, 2013 10:20 PM EST\u00a0 The Washington Post The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with a drug-sniffing German shepherd named Aldo in ruling that police do not have to extensively document a dog\u2019s expertise to justify relying on the animal to search someone\u2019s vehicle. The unanimous court overturned a decision by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals-with-jobs","category-behavior-and-training"],"yoast_head":"\nSupreme Court sides with drug-sniffing dog | The Animal Health Foundation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court sides with drug-sniffing dog | The Animal Health Foundation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Robert Barnes,\u00a0\u00a0 Feb 19, 2013 10:20 PM EST\u00a0 The Washington Post The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with a drug-sniffing German shepherd named Aldo in ruling that police do not have to extensively document a dog\u2019s expertise to justify relying on the animal to search someone\u2019s vehicle. The unanimous court overturned a decision by […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Animal Health Foundation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/animalhealthfoundation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-20T18:42:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/ALDO1351628231.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Animal Health Foundation\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Animal Health Foundation\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"The Animal Health Foundation\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f475447cd5f132c17522d9188f6fcb9b\"},\"headline\":\"Supreme Court sides with drug-sniffing dog\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-02-20T18:42:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/\"},\"wordCount\":453,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/ALDO1351628231.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Animals with Jobs\",\"Behavior and Training\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/\",\"name\":\"Supreme Court sides with drug-sniffing dog | The Animal Health Foundation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/ALDO1351628231.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-02-20T18:42:51+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/ALDO1351628231.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/ALDO1351628231.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Supreme Court sides with drug-sniffing dog\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Animal Health Foundation\",\"description\":\"Our Blog\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Animal Health Foundation of California\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\",\"caption\":\"Animal Health Foundation of California\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/animalhealthfoundation\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f475447cd5f132c17522d9188f6fcb9b\",\"name\":\"The Animal Health Foundation\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/35d2d92234619be7650525ff812317b3c1c8e3d00c51a1bc0e49e7f5ac684f2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/35d2d92234619be7650525ff812317b3c1c8e3d00c51a1bc0e49e7f5ac684f2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/35d2d92234619be7650525ff812317b3c1c8e3d00c51a1bc0e49e7f5ac684f2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"The Animal Health Foundation\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/author\/ahfadmin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Supreme Court sides with drug-sniffing dog | The Animal Health Foundation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Supreme Court sides with drug-sniffing dog | The Animal Health Foundation","og_description":"By Robert Barnes,\u00a0\u00a0 Feb 19, 2013 10:20 PM EST\u00a0 The Washington Post The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with a drug-sniffing German shepherd named Aldo in ruling that police do not have to extensively document a dog\u2019s expertise to justify relying on the animal to search someone\u2019s vehicle. The unanimous court overturned a decision by […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/","og_site_name":"The Animal Health Foundation","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/animalhealthfoundation\/","article_published_time":"2013-02-20T18:42:51+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/ALDO1351628231.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"The Animal Health Foundation","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"The Animal Health Foundation","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/"},"author":{"name":"The Animal Health Foundation","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f475447cd5f132c17522d9188f6fcb9b"},"headline":"Supreme Court sides with drug-sniffing dog","datePublished":"2013-02-20T18:42:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/"},"wordCount":453,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/ALDO1351628231.jpg","articleSection":["Animals with Jobs","Behavior and Training"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/","url":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/","name":"Supreme Court sides with drug-sniffing dog | The Animal Health Foundation","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/ALDO1351628231.jpg","datePublished":"2013-02-20T18:42:51+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/ALDO1351628231.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/ALDO1351628231.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/supreme-court-sides-with-drug-sniffing-dog\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Supreme Court sides with drug-sniffing dog"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/","name":"The Animal Health Foundation","description":"Our Blog","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"Animal Health Foundation of California","url":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"Animal Health Foundation of California"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/animalhealthfoundation\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f475447cd5f132c17522d9188f6fcb9b","name":"The Animal Health Foundation","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/35d2d92234619be7650525ff812317b3c1c8e3d00c51a1bc0e49e7f5ac684f2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/35d2d92234619be7650525ff812317b3c1c8e3d00c51a1bc0e49e7f5ac684f2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/35d2d92234619be7650525ff812317b3c1c8e3d00c51a1bc0e49e7f5ac684f2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"The Animal Health Foundation"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org"],"url":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/author\/ahfadmin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1834"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1837,"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834\/revisions\/1837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}