Coolidge v. New Hampshire 403 U.S. 443 (1971)

• Author: Steven Shiffrin
• Pages: 682-683

Page 682

In Coolidge v. New Hampshire, police officers, acting pursuant to a SEARCH WARRANT issued by the state attorney

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general, seized and later searched an automobile parked in the driveway of a murder suspect's home. The Supreme Court ruled the warrant invalid because a prosecutor could not be regarded as a neutral and detached magistrate. The automobile seizure was too far removed in time and space from the suspect's arrest to be considered incident to that arrest, was not grounded in any EXIGENT CIRCUMSTANCES to qualify for an AUTOMOBILE SEARCH or PLAIN VIEW exception nor was the discovery of the automobile inadvertent. Later decisions have confined Coolidge to its facts, emphasizing the automobile's location on a private driveway and the fact that the automobile was not contraband, stolen, or...