The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is poised to consider whether a motorist’s consent to a vehicle search includes a canine sniff.
In a one-page order issued Feb. 1 in Commonwealth v. Valdivia, the justices agreed to take up defendant Randy Jesus Valdivia’s appeal, which asks: “Whether, in a case of first impression, the Superior Court erred in holding that a reasonable person would have understood that their consent to a roadside search of their vehicle would encompass a canine sniff of all of the packages contained inside the vehicle, and that said consent was knowing, intelligent, and voluntary where the police officers withheld pertinent information about the forthcoming search from petitioner, including that the canine search would not start any sooner than an hour from when petitioner’s consent was given?”
