SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) — The Illinois Supreme Court is deciding two cases regarding whether the scent of marijuana is enough reason for a law enforcement officer to search someone’s car.
Illinois’s Supreme Court Justices heard a case Wednesday questioning if police can search vehicles due to smelling marijuana. Vincent Molina and Ryan Redmond were both charged with misdemeanors due to improperly containing their cannabis after Illinois State Police searched their cars.
Illinois drivers must carry any marijuana in “sealed, odor-proof, and child-resistant medical cannabis containers” according to state law.
Despite the charge, both defendants had a small, legal amount of marijuana. Molina additionally had a medicinal marijuana card. Marijuana has been legal in the state since 2020.
The defendants view the idea of searching a vehicle for cannabis as outdated, given the legality of the substance.
“The Government’s tardy attempt to obscure this historic issue should be rejected,” Molina’s lawyers wrote in a brief. “The Government asks this court to approve of a motor vehicle search in reliance upon a rationale rendered obsolete by a sea change in cannabis regulation. In this, the Government rejects evolution, and advocates stagnation, of the law.”
The Attorney General’s office believes probable cause for marijuana odor is an important tool police officers can use to investigate crime.
“An officer who detects the odor of cannabis necessarily has a “substantial chance” of uncovering criminal activity, and probable cause therefore exists,” the state wrote in a reply brief. “That there are other, innocent explanations for the odor, or that the officer’s suspicion may prove incorrect does not negate probable cause.”
The ACLU and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers disagree. The groups filed an amicus brief on the side of defendants, citing Illinois law enforcement trends that traffic stops disproportionately affect Black and Latino drivers.
“This Court will not hinder public safety if it holds that officers in Illinois, where possession and use of personal amounts of cannabis is legal, may not use its odor as a pretext to fish for other evidence against a driver,” the amicus brief reads. “Such a holding will, however, discourage officers from using pretextual traffic stops in ways that disproportionately single out Black and Latino drivers for harassment, fear, physical harm, and even death.”
Last year, a bill was filed in the Illinois legislature to ban the police from searching cars due to marijuana odor.
The Supreme Court will make a decision on the case by the end of the year.