SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois Supreme Court ruled this month that the smell of marijuana alone does not justify a warrantless search of a vehicle, more than 4 1/2 years after the state legalized recreational marijuana. The ruling overturned decades of precedent.
In a unanimous decision, the justices ruled that the long-standing law enforcement practice of justifying a warrantless search based solely on reporting the odor of marijuana no longer holds true in Illinois courts.
The ruling stems from the case of Ryan Redmond, who was stopped for speeding on Interstate 80 in Henry County in September 2020.
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Officer Hayden Combs of the Illinois State Police said he smelled burnt marijuana and searched the vehicle. And sure enough, he found a small amount of marijuana in the center console.
But while such searches have been supported for decades under Illinois law, the court ruled on Sept. 19 that under the revised legal status of marijuana, odor alone no longer constitutes probable cause. It was decided that
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The court's decision reflects significant changes to Illinois cannabis law since the Cannabis Regulation and Taxation Act went into effect on January 1, 2020.
“Marijuana laws have changed so significantly that the smell of burnt marijuana alone does not provide sufficient reason for a police officer to search a vehicle without a warrant,” Judge P. Scott Neville wrote in the article. . Court opinion.
Mr Neville said marijuana possession and use is now legal in many circumstances, meaning the smell of cannabis is not inherently indicative of illegal activity.
“Currently, there are countless situations in which cannabis may be used and possessed, and the odors resulting from its legal use and possession are not indicative of criminal activity,” he said.
The smell of burnt marijuana alone is not enough to establish probable cause, according to the ruling.
Just as the odor of alcohol alone is not enough to justify a search, police officers use The smell of marijuana must be considered in the context of the entire situation.
The decision was hailed as a victory for civil liberties advocates who have long argued that the smell of marijuana provides an easy pretext for police searches without warrants, leading to disproportionate enforcement against Black and Latino drivers.
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union filed a brief in support of Redmond, showing how marijuana odor claims have been unfairly used to justify searches of minority motorists. He pointed to ten years' worth of data.
“This state has a decades-long pattern of police using pretexts such as the smell of marijuana to stop and search Black and Latino drivers unreasonably,” the ACLU argued in a brief.
In 2023, Illinois State Police stopped black drivers 1.7 times as often as white drivers and stopped Latino drivers 1.11 times as often as white drivers, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation's mandatory annual report.
Mitchell Ness, an attorney with the Illinois Attorney General's Office, argued in the Illinois Supreme Court on January 11, 2024. (Via Illinois Supreme Court/Video)
Attorney General Kwame Raoul's office opposed the change, arguing that the odor of marijuana should still be grounds for probable cause because marijuana must be transported in sealed, odor-proof containers.
The attorney general's office argued in a brief that the odor of marijuana, whether fresh or burned, would still give police probable cause.
However, under questioning from the judges, Assistant Attorney General Mitchell Ness acknowledged that burnt marijuana alone was not sufficient cause for a search.
“Okay, so burnt marijuana, you were stopped and the officer smelled burnt marijuana,” Judge Lisa Holder White asked Ness. “Is it your contention that that alone is insufficient to search the vehicle?”
“I think that's true, but not necessarily in this court,” Ness said.
According to the ruling in the Redmond case, Officer Combs claimed that Interstate 80 between Des Moines and Chicago was a “drug corridor,” but the attorney general's office abandoned that claim and a lower court judge It was judged to be “not persuasive.”
The court did not rule on another case, People v. Molina, which challenged the state's odor-proof container requirements.
In January, the court heard oral arguments in the Redmond and Molina cases together.
The high court's 20-page decision in the Redmond case puts Illinois in line with several other large states (among them Minnesota, Delaware, and New Jersey), saying the justices found that the smell of marijuana could be detected after legalization. It has been determined that this does not automatically indicate a criminal act.
RELATED: Legal marijuana in Illinois is most expensive, 89% more expensive than the rest of the U.S., report finds
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