Collins v. Virginia — Merits Brief

Jeremiah Morgan Constitutional Law, U. S. Supreme Court

Today, we filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in a case involving a warrantless search of a motorcycle under a tarp located in the “curtilage” of a home, or the area immediately surrounding it.  Under the deeply flawed rule the Virginia Supreme Court applied, the Fourth Amendment has no bearing at all whenever an automobile or anything that resembles an automobile is being searched, irrespective of where the automobile is located.

Our brief asked the Supreme Court to reevaluate the court-created automobile exception to the Fourth Amendment.  Instead, applying the property principles of reestablished in United States v. Jones, 565 U.S. 400 (2012) and Florida v. Jardines, 569 U.S. 1 (2013), the Court should find that the search of the motorcycle violated the Fourth Amendment.

Read Amicus Brief here.