Source:
Associated PressCourt Embraces Rights for Car PassengersBy MARK SHERMAN
Monday, June 18, 2007; 10:16 AM
WASHINGTON -- Passengers, like drivers, have a
constitutional right to challenge the legality of
police decisions to stop cars in which they are
traveling, the Supreme Court said Monday.
Bruce Brendlin was convicted of drug possession
after a sheriff's deputy stopped a car in which he
was a passenger in Yuba City, Calif., in 2001.
-snip-Brendlin appealed his conviction, arguing that the
drug evidence should be suppressed because it
was found as the result of an illegal stop. The
state has since conceded there was no basis to
stop the car.
-snip-Justice David Souter, writing for a unanimous
court, disagreed. "A traffic stop necessarily
curtails the travel a passenger has chosen just
as much as it halts the driver," Souter said.
-snip-Read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/18/AR2007061800449.html