| New York v. Belton | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Argued April 27, 1981 Decided July 1, 1981 | |
| Full case name | New York v. Roger Belton |
| Citations | 453 U.S. 454 (more) 101 S. Ct. 2860; 69 L. Ed. 2d 768 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Certiorari to the Court of Appeals of New York |
| Holding | |
| When a police officer has made a lawful custodial arrest of the occupant of an automobile, the officer may, as a contemporaneous incident of that arrest, search the passenger compartment of that automobile. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Stewart, joined by Burger, Blackmun, Powell, Rehnquist |
| Concurrence | Rehnquist |
| Concurrence | Stevens |
| Dissent | Brennan, joined by Marshall |
| Dissent | White, joined by Marshall |
New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454 (1981), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that when a police officer has made a lawful custodial arrest of the occupant of an automobile, the officer may, as a contemporaneous incident of that arrest, search the passenger compartment of that automobile. Therefore, Belton extended the so-called "Chimel rule" of searches incident to a lawful arrest, established in Chimel v. California (1969), to vehicles. The Supreme Court sought to establish bright line rules to govern vehicle search incident to eliminate some confusion in the cases.