WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared troubled by police use of drug sniffing dogs that point their noses too close to the front doors of homes.
The justices heard back-to-back arguments in two Florida cases, raising Fourth Amendment issues about trained narcotics-detection dogs. The state of Florida is asking the Court two relatively straightforward questions: Is a dog sniff at the front door of a suspected marijuana grow house a search that requires probable cause, and is a dog alert to possible drugs sufficient to establish probable cause to search a vehicle? Law enforcement lost both cases in the Florida Supreme Court.
