The Fourth Amendment protect against "unreasonable searches and seizures," meaning they are two separate legal actions that can occur independently or together. You are correct that a seizure (the towing of your car) is a distinct event from a search (looking inside it), and both must be legally justified. Library of Congress – Constitution Annotated (.gov) +4 If the police seized your car but did not search it, the legal argument shifts from whether they had a right to look inside to whether they had the authority to take the car in the first place. njcriminaldefenselawblog.com +1 Why your attorney may be calling the case law "misplaced" Your attorney likely finds South Dakota v. Opperman misplaced because that specific case was used by the Supreme Court to justify a search after a vehicle was already lawfully towed. Garden State CLE The Trap : By citing Opperman ,...
