Wyoming v. Houghton

Wyoming v. Houghton
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 12, 1999 Decided April 5, 1999
Full case name	Wyoming, Petitioner v. Sandra K. Houghton
Citations	526 U.S. 295 (more) 119 S.Ct. 1297; 143 L. Ed. 2d 408; 1999 U.S. LEXIS 2347; 67 U.S.L.W. 4225; 99 Cal. Daily Op. Service 2476; 99 Daily Journal DAR 3230; 1999 Colo. J. C.A.R. 1924; 12 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 179
Case history
Prior	956 P.2d 363 (Wyo. 1998); cert. granted, 524 U.S. 983 (1998).
Holding
Absent exigency, the warrantless search of a passenger's container capable of holding the object of a search for which there is probable cause is not a violation of the Fourth Amendment, justified under the automobile exception as an effect of the car.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority	Scalia, joined by Rehnquist, O'Connor, Kennedy, Thomas, Breyer
Concurrence	Breyer
Dissent	Stevens, joined by Souter, Ginsburg
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. IV

Wyoming v. Houghton, 526 U.S. 295 (1999), is a United States Supreme Court case which held that absent exigency, the warrantless search of a passenger's container capable of holding the object of a search for which there is probable cause is not a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution because it is justified under the automobile exception as an effect of the car.^[1]