What limitations have judicial cases placed on the search of a motor vehicle incident to a lawful arrest?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Keeping in mind the foundation principle of the Chimel case, that a search may be made of the area under the arrestee's immediate control, the Supreme Court ruled in the 1981 case of New York v. Belton that when a police officer makes a lawful custodial arrest of the occupant of an automobile, the officer may search the vehicle's passenger compartment as a contemporaneous incident of arrest. The right to search includes any open or closed containers found in the passenger compartment. It does not include the trunk.
In brief, the Court said that the right to search the passenger compartment of a car still exists even if the officer does not make contact until the person arrested has left the vehicle. The issue in this case asked the question on the reasonableness of the search whether the defendant was inside or outside the vehicle when first contacted and subsequently arrested. The opinion points out that the length of time the person had been out of the car and how far away from the vehicle the person was may all come into play in determining reasonableness of a search. Interestingly, in this case, the defendant had already been secured and was in the back seat of the patrol car when this search took place. This, of course, was pointed out by the dissenting Justices, who said there was no longer any chance to obtain a weapon or destroy evidence and the officer should have obtained a warrant before searching.
A vehicle search is not reasonable if conducted pursuant to stopping a vehicle for a traffic violation and writing a citation. A citation is not an arrest and no right to search arises.