Wanda L. Edwards v. South Dakota

When police officers have probable cause to believe that a stopped car contains contraband, they may search containers in the car, including a purse sitting on the back seat. See Wyoming v. Houghton, 526 U.S. 295, 300-01, 307 (1999). But probable cause to search the car does not authorize a search of the passengers themselves, including their outer clothing. See id. at 303. Justice Breyer raised the question whether a search is authorized “if a woman’s purse, like a man’s billfold,” is “attached to her person.” See id. at 308 (Breyer, J., concurring). He explained that the purse may count as “outer clothing” that “receive[s] increased” constitutional “protection,” and cannot be searched just because an officer has reason to stop the vehicle or search its driver. Id. That open question has divided state high courts, and the Court should resolve the acknowledged split. Here, Petitioner Wanda Lynn Edwards was a passenger in a vehicle that a police officer in Sturgis, South Dakota, pulled over for driving without its headlights on. During the traffic stop, another officer forcibly took and searched the purse Ms. Edwards wore on her shoulder. As a result of the search, Ms. Edwards was convicted of drug possession. The question presented is whether officers must have probable cause to search purses held or worn by passengers during traffic stops (as the Supreme Courts of Kansas, North Dakota, and Idaho have held), or whether officers may conduct warrantless searches of any purses held by any person in a stopped vehicle (as the South Dakota Supreme Court, joining the Supreme Courts of Minnesota, Nebraska, and Ohio, held below over a dissent).