Thornton v. United States

Thornton v. United States
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 31, 2004 Decided May 24, 2004
Full case name	Marcus Thornton, Petitioner v. United States
Citations	541 U.S. 615 (more) 124 S.Ct. 2127; 158 L.Ed.2d 905
Prior history	Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Argument	Oral argument
Holding
Belton governs even when an officer does not make contact until the person arrested has left the vehicle.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority	Rehnquist, joined by Kennedy, Thomas, Breyer
Concurrence	O'Connor
Concurrence	Scalia, joined by Ginsburg
Dissent	Stevens, joined by Souter

Thornton v. United States, 541 U.S. 615 (2004), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court, which held that when a police officer makes a lawful custodial arrest of an automobile's occupant, the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution allows the officer to search the vehicle's passenger compartment as a contemporaneous incident of arrest. Thornton extended New York v. Belton, ruling that it governs even when an officer does not make contact until the person arrested has left the vehicle. Thornton also suggests a separate justification for an evidentiary search "when it is reasonable to believe evidence relevant to the crime of arrest might be found in the vehicle." 541 U.S., at 632.

Thornton and Belton were distinguished by Arizona v. Gant, which restricted searches incident to arrest to circumstance where: 1) it is reasonable to believe that the arrested individual might access the vehicle at the time of the search; or 2) it is reasonable to believe that arrested individual's vehicle contains evidence of the offense that led to the arrest; or 3) the officer has probable cause to believe that there may be evidence of a crime concealed within the vehicle. Thus, while Arizona v. Gant modifies the search incident to arrest doctrine, it also leaves intact certain legal justifications for warrantless searches set forth in Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752 (1969), Thornton, and United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798 (1982).

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 541
• List of United States Supreme Court cases

Further reading

• Ball, Dane C. (2005). "Thornton v. United States: Blurring Belton′s Bright Line Rule Spells Disaster for Lower Courts and the Fourth Amendment". Southwestern University Law Review 35: 1. ISSN 08863296. 
• Dery, G.; Hernandez, M. J. (2005). "Turning a Government Search into a Permanent Power: Thornton v. United States and the ‘Progressive Distortion’ of Search Incident to Arrest". William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal 14 (2): 677–710. ISSN 10658254. 
• Jones, C. J. (2006). "Thornton v. United States: Expanding the Scope of Search Incident to Arrest on America's Roadways". American Journal of Trial Advocacy 30: 627. ISSN 01600281. 
• Lewis, J. (2004). "To Serve and Protect: Thornton v. United States and the Newly Anemic Fourth Amendment". Mercer Law Review 56: 1471. ISSN 0025987X.