Published on: Friday, June 30, 2023
Lansing, Mich. cop sees man passed out at the wheel of a running car early in the morning after a blizzard. Without knocking opens the driver's door to check. Man wakes up. Cop asks for ID. Things escalate quickly and cop finds a whole lot of bags of drugs and a gun. Man: Unreasonable search and the community caretaker exception does not apply. District court. Not unreasonable. Motion to dismiss denied. Here's a 204-month sentence. Sixth Circuit: Here's our chance to detail the long history of police doing stuff other than crime control, going back to 1285. But, yeah, the cop could have just knocked. Evidence suppressed.
The case is United States v. Morgan, No. 22-1445 (6th Cir. June 26, 2023).