The Wisconsin Supreme Court says a car smelling like marijuana is enough for police to justify searching a single person in the vehicle. The court's conservative majority ruled 4-3 on Tuesday against Quaheem Moore, who was pulled over in 2019 and searched by police after they smelled marijuana in his car. Officers arrested Moore after finding cocaine and illegal opioids in his pocket, but never charged him with marijuana possession. The court's three liberal justices argued that officers did not have enough evidence to conduct a search. The liberal justices also said police could not determine that the odor was marijuana, since the scent of CBD, a legal substance, is indistinguishable.
  • KingStrafeIVEnglish
    18·
    1 year ago

    Probable cause is a formality. A box to check to avoid appeals.

    If he didn’t “smell” marijuana, he would have “smelled” alcohol, or he would have claimed “erratic driving”, or he would have summoned a K9 unit which would have alerted on command.

    • SDKEnglish
      6·
      1 year ago

      100% this. A box to check to avoid appeals.

  • SDKEnglish
    111·
    1 year ago

    Wow! Another legal justification for cops to harass black folks. Great. 🤦‍♂️

      • null_recurrentEnglish
        10·
        1 year ago

        At about the same rates, in fact. And yet, arrests are way higher for black people (in Iowa it’s like 8 times higher).

        The war on drugs is also a good tool to oppress poor white people, but the data on this one are really stark. Prohibition is a major tool of racial oppression in the US.

      • Caboose12000@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9·
        1 year ago

        I think the point was that it’s extremely hard to prove that a cop didn’t smell something, so they can see a black person, lie and say they smell weed and have 0 consequences for harassing them.