New Jersey Police No Longer Need Search Warrant in Traffic Stops

TRENTON -- The state Supreme Court on Thursday overturned its own 2009 decision on warrantless car searches, broadening police authority to search vehicles based on probable cause.

The 5-2 decision, stemming from the case of a Salem County man who was charged with illegal handgun possession following an unrelated motor vehicle stop, was praised by the state Attorney General as a fix that helps law enforcement.

Civil rights advocates, however, decried it as a rollback of civil liberties in the state.

[...]Writing the dissent, Justice Jaynee LaVecchia called the decision “a retreat to the federal standard for warrantless searches of an automobile.”

“One can only wonder why the State and the majority of this Court find it appropriate to turn from the progressive approach historically taken in this State to privacy and constitutional rights of motorists,” LaVecchia wrote.

Acting state Attorney General John Hoffman praised the decision as “a clear and workable rule” that strikes “an appropriate balance between protection of citizens’ constitutional rights and the paramount need for public protection and officer safety.”

Alexander Shalom, an attorney for the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed friend of the court briefs in the case, said New Jersey has historically had more protection of motorists’ rights than other states.

“With today’s decision, those protections no longer exist and police will be able to routinely conduct warrantless searches of vehicles,” he said.