A Rare Victory Against the War On (Some Classes of People Who Use Some) Drugs

It obviously won’t get as much attention as yesterday’s oral argument, but as I note at the Prospect there was a major Fourth Amendment ruling yesterday. The fact that it involved marijuana generally makes one fear the worst, but since it involved a property trespass Scalia and Thomas voted to rule that sniffing for drugs on the outside of someone’s house is, in fact, a search.

It was a 5-4 decision, which as some of you have calculated means that the always shaky-on-civil-liberties Breyer joined the dissent. The dissent was, of course, written by Sam “Strip Seach” Alito. As I’ve said before and I’ll say again, on the question of whether Alito is a reasonable moderate liberals should have been grateful for you can believe Althouse and Taylor, or you can believe all of the available evidence.