''Coolidge v. New Hampshire'', 403 U.S. 443 (1971), was a
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
case dealing with the
Fourth Amendment and the
automobile exception
The motor vehicle exception is a legal rule in the United States that modifies the normal probable cause requirement of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and, when applicable, allows a police officer to search a motor vehicle ...
.
The state sought to justify the
search of a car owned by Edward Coolidge, suspected of killing 14-year-old Pamela Mason in January 1964, on three theories: automobile exception,
search incident to arrest, and
plain view.
Facts
14-year-old Pamela Mason of
Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644.
Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Ha ...
placed an ad in the window of a local merchant offering to babysit. On January 13, 1964, she was picked up by a man who had called her, saying that he needed a babysitter. He picked her up to take her to the alleged babysitting location but she was never seen again. Eight days later, Mason was found stabbed and shot to death in a snowbank near Manchester, New Hampshire. The state Attorney General took charge of police activities relating to the murder. When the police applied for a warrant to search suspect Coolidge's automobile, the Attorney General, acting as a justice of the peace, authorized it. Additionally, local police had taken items from Coolidge's home during the course of an interview with the suspect's wife. Coolidge was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Opinion of the Court
In a decision in which a number of justices chose to concur in part and dissent in part, the Court held that the searches and seizures of Coolidge's property were unconstitutional.
Justice Stewart's opinion held that the warrant authorizing the seizure of Coolidge's automobile was invalid because it was not issued by a "neutral and detached magistrate." Justice Stewart also rejected New Hampshire's arguments in favor of making an exception to the warrant requirement. Justice Stewart held that neither the "incident to arrest" doctrine nor the "plain view" doctrine justified the search, and that an "automobile exception" was inapplicable. The Court noted that although the "automobile exception" exists, "the word 'automobile' is not a talisman in whose presence the fourth amendment fades away and disappears...".
Aftermath
Coolidge was released from prison in 1991 maintains his innocence in Mason's murder and the other murders he was suspected in.
[ ]
References
Further reading
*.
*https://www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1970/1970_323
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coolidge V. New Hampshire
1971 in United States case law
United States Supreme Court cases
United States Supreme Court cases of the Burger Court
United States Fourth Amendment case law
Legal history of New Hampshire