Maryland v. Wilson

In Maryland v. Wilson (1997), the U.S. Supreme Court decided by a 7–2 majority that police officers can order passengers out of their vehicles without violating the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. This was an extension of the Court's previous decision in Pennsylvania v. Mimms (1977), which established the rule that it is not an unreasonable search or seizure for police officers to order drivers of lawfully stopped vehicles to exit their vehicles. The Wilson decision gave police officers the ability to stop vehicles and detain all the occupants for any justifiable reason. Some opponents of the Wilson decision argue that this ability contributes to “racial profiling,” which is the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining the likelihood that a person would commit a particular crime or illegal act.

At around 7:30 p.m. on June 8, 1994, a Maryland state trooper observed a motor vehicle speeding on the south side of Interstate 95 in Baltimore. The car did not have a regular license plate but instead had a torn Enterprise Rent-a-Car tag dangling from its rear. The trooper observed this and turned on his lights, signaling the driver to pull over. The driver continued down the highway for another mile and a half until pulling the car to the side of the road. During the pursuit, the trooper noticed that there were three occupants in the car and that the two passengers, one in the front seat and one in the rear, turned to look back at him several times, repeatedly ducking below his line of sight and then reappearing. As the trooper approached the car, the driver exited the vehicle and met him halfway. The driver was shaking and seemed to be nervous, but he showed the trooper a valid Connecticut driver's license. The trooper instructed the driver to return to the car and get the rental papers. During the traffic stop, the trooper noticed that the front seat passenger also [Page 486]appeared extremely nervous and jittery. While the driver was sitting in the driver's seat looking for the rental papers, the trooper ordered the passenger, Jerry Lee Wilson, out of the car. When Wilson exited the car, a significant amount of crack cocaine fell onto the ground. The trooper then placed Wilson under arrest for possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute.

Jerry Wilson filed a motion to suppress the evidence that was found when the officer ordered him out of the rental car, arguing that this constituted an unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment. The Baltimore County Circuit Court granted the motion, and the Maryland Court of Special Appeals affirmed, holding that while Mimms allows officers to order drivers out of legally stopped vehicles, the law does not extend to passengers. The Supreme Court reversed this decision, ruling that officers may constitutionally order passengers out of legally stopped vehicles.

The Wilson Court's rationale followed its Mimms decision, which had held that vehicle passengers do not have Fourth Amendment protection from being ordered from their vehicles once a proper stop has been made. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, writing for the Wilson majority, stated that the “interest of an officer's safety makes asking a passenger to step out of a vehicle a mechanism for deterring a possible assault because a passenger can be equally as violent towards a cop as a driver.” The Court also stated that “the passenger as a practical matter is already stopped by virtue of the vehicle being stopped.” The Court decided that the intrusion is minimal and that vehicle passengers can pose a greater risk to police officers than vehicles without passengers.

...