still more on NYC's Stop & Frisks (Part 4: still more on New York vs. Supreme Court)

(Well, after summer classes, there was Saratoga. What can I say?

And even before the meet ended, school began. So now, after my summer and back-to-school respite, New York Court Watcher is back.
Back where we left off. Then on to all sorts of other fascinating and important developments in courts, judges, and judicial-related politics. Glad to be back.) 

In previous posts, we've used NYC's aggressive stop & frisk program as a springboard to examine some basic differences between the Supreme Court's decisions, which have diluted search & seizure protections, and NY Court of Appeals case law, that is more rights-protective.

Traffic stops, automobile searches, canine sniffs, searches of private property, street encounters, bus sweeps, etc. In all, New York's highest court takes the fundamental right against unreasonable searches and seizures much more seriously than does the federal Supreme Court.

Let's finish this series of posts with a few more critical differences.

Searches of bags, luggage, other items upon arrest:

As we discussed in Part 1 of this series, New York's DeBour rule requires the police to have some legitimate suspicion of criminality in order to approach a person and ask to search. The Supreme Court requires absolutely no justification to do the same.
What about situations where a person has already been legally arrested? What may be searched--without a warrant--incident to that arrest?

Lawrence H. Cooke

The Court of Appeals has--no surprise--required some justification for a warrantless search of bags, luggage, or other items within the so-called "grabbable area" of a person who's been arrested.
There must be some "exigent" circumstance--e.g., possible danger to the public or the police, or the possible destruction of evidence. If there's no such exigency, a warrant (supported, of course, by probable cause) is required for such a search.
So, if a person has been arrested and handcuffed, or otherwise taken into police custody, and he cannot access his bag or luggage or some other property, it can't be searched without a warrant.
Not under New York's case law, that is. (People v. Gokey, 1983; another court opinion by Chief Judge Cooke.)