Delaware v. Prouse

440 U.S. 648 (1979)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

A patrolman in a police cruiser stopped the automobile occupied by D. The patrolman smelled marihuana smoke as he was walking toward the vehicle, and he seized marihuana in plain view on the car floor. At a hearing on D's motion to suppress the marihuana seized as a result of the stop, the patrolman testified that prior to stopping the vehicle he had observed neither traffic or equipment violations nor any suspicious activity and that he made the stop only in order to check the driver's license and registration. The patrolman was not acting pursuant to any standards, guidelines, or procedures pertaining to document spot checks, promulgated by either his department or the State Attorney General. The trial court granted the motion to suppress, finding the stop and detention to have been wholly capricious and therefore violative of the Fourth Amendment. The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed. The court held that 'a random stop of a motorist in the absence of specific articulable facts which justify the stop by indicating a reasonable suspicion that a violation of the law has occurred is constitutionally impermissible and violative of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.