Florida v. Harris

Florida v. Harris
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 31, 2012
Decided February 19, 2013
Full case nameState of Florida v. Clayton Harris
Docket no.11-817
Citations568 U.S. 237 (more)
133 S.Ct. 1050; 185 L. Ed. 2d 61; 2013 U.S. LEXIS 1121; 81 U.S.L.W. 4081
Case history
PriorMotion to suppress evid. denied at trial, affirmed (per curiam), 989 So.2d 1214 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008); reversed, 71 So.3d 756, (Fla. S. Ct. 2011); rehearing denied, unpubl. order, (Fla. S. Ct. 2011); cert. granted, 566 U.S. 904 (2012).
Holding
If a bona fide organization has certified a dog after testing his reliability in a controlled setting, or if the dog has recently and successfully completed a training program that evaluated his proficiency, a court can presume (subject to any conflicting evidence offered) that the dog's alert provides probable cause to search, using a "totality-of-the-circumstances" approach.
Court membership
Chief Justice
John Roberts
Associate Justices
Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy
Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito
Sonia Sotomayor · Elena Kagan
Case opinion
MajorityKagan, joined by unanimous
Laws applied
U.S. Const. Amend. IV

Florida v. Harris, 568 U.S. 237 (2013), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court addressed the reliability of a dog sniff by a detection dog trained to identify narcotics, under the specific context of whether law enforcement's assertions that the dog is trained or certified is sufficient to establish probable cause for a search of a vehicle under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[1][2] Harris was the first Supreme Court case to challenge the dog's reliability, backed by data that asserts that on average, up to 80% of a dog's alerts are wrong.[3][4] Twenty-four U.S. States, the federal government, and two U.S. territories filed briefs in support of Florida as amici curiae.[5][6]

A dog with a police badge attached to its collar
Police dog

Oral argument in this case – and that of another dog sniff case, Florida v. Jardines – was heard on October 31, 2012. The Court unanimously held that if a bona fide organization has certified a dog after testing his reliability in a controlled setting, or if the dog has recently and successfully completed a training program that evaluated his proficiency, a court can presume (subject to any conflicting evidence offered) that the dog's alert provides probable cause to search, using a "totality-of-the-circumstances" approach.

  1. ^ Florida v. Harris, 568 U.S. 237 (2013).
  2. ^ "11-817 Florida v. Harris: Question Presented" (PDF). United States Supreme Court.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference 4outof5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference NACDL-Brief was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference USBrief was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference 24states was invoked but never defined (see the help page).