A QUESTION regarding a police officer’s right to open and inspect a suitcase during a warrantless search of a defendant’s home has resulted in a split decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

A divided panel, in overturning a lower court’s suppression of guns found in luggage that the defendant had borrowed from a roommate, said the trial judge should have examined whether the defendant had a “reasonable expectation of privacy” in the suitcase.