Fifth Circuit Announces Long Vehicle Protective-Search Exception Requires Contemporaneous Facts Demonstrating Third Party’s Potential Dangerousness Before Warrantless Vehicle Search Is Permissible

by David Kim

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that a warrantless protective search of a vehicle under Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032 (1983) (sometimes described as a vehicle “protective sweep”), violated the Fourth Amendment where officers failed to identify any fact …