Last week Tompkins County Judge Scott Miller gave a Q&A session on how the justice and legal system in the United States operated. Various issues were discussed such as the higher level of leeway state judges had over sentences in comparison to federal judges, and the election versus appointment of judges in the United States.

Something interesting that was brought about was the legality of the police using a terry stop to search someone who emanated the smell of marijuana. The idea is that such an odor does not create a reasonable suspicion that there was a crime. Terry stops have been very controversial in NYC, where they have been more popularly known as Stop-and-Frisk. This specific act of frisking by the NYPD was ruled unconstitutional by a U.S. District Court Judge(1). This decision was appealed but I believe the appeal was dropped after a change in NYC’s mayoral administration led to disapproval and consequently a sharp downturn in Stop-and-Frisk stops carried out.

While there is precedent for police to search a vehicle where drugs are suspected to be held, it seems that the case regarding the search of a pedestrian was unique in New York State. It would be interesting to see if the rest of the state incorporates this into their case laws.

Additional Information on the Stop-and-Frisk Case:
1 – http://www.factcheck.org/2016/09/is-stop-and-frisk-unconstitutional/