While criminal defense lawyers’ reactions to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s recent ruling lowering the standard for warrantless vehicle searches ranged from saying it would have little practical effect to calling it “scary” and “disturbing,” all of them agreed that the decision marked a drastic departure from the court’s precedent.
In an April 29 decision that found the justices more deeply divided than a 4-2 split might suggest on its face, the court adopted the federal automobile exception to the search warrant requirement.
