In Arizona v. Gant, __ U.S. __, 129 S. Ct. 1710 (2009), the Supreme Court held that an officer may search an arrestee’s vehicle incident to arrest only if the arrestee is unsecured and “within reaching distance of the passenger compartment” or “it is reasonable to believe the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest.” My original summary of Gant is here. Shortly after I posted that summary, I wrote this post, asking whether Gant is limited to automobile searches, or whether it might also constrain searches of personal property that have historically been performed incident to arrest. For example, if an arrestee is secured and separated from his briefcase, is the briefcase subject to search incident to arrest after Gant? What about a cell phone? I recently came across a case on this very issue: United States v. Shakir, __ F.3d __, 2010 WL 3122808 (3d Cir. Aug. 10, 2010). In Shakir, police arrested the defendant in a hotel lobby pursuant to an arrest warrant. When he was arrested, the defendant dropped a gym bag. He was handcuffed and secured by two officers, at which point a third officer searched the bag, finding a large amount of cash that was used to connect the defendant to a bank robbery. The defendant was charged with the bank robbery – the original warrant concerned a separate crime – and moved to suppress the cash, arguing that the search of the bag incident to arrest was improper because he was secured and [...]
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