Chimel v. California

395 U.S. 752 (1969)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Three police officers arrived at D's home with a warrant authorizing his arrest for the burglary of a coin shop. After the officers asked, D's wife allowed them to wait inside the home for D to come home from work. When D entered the house, one of the officers handed him the arrest warrant and asked for permission to 'look around.' D objected but was advised that 'on the basis of the lawful arrest,' the officers would nonetheless conduct a search. No search warrant had been issued. The officers then searched the entire three-bedroom house, including the attic, the garage, and a small workshop. They got D's wife to open drawers and 'to physically move contents of the drawers from side to side so that [they] might view any items that would have come from [the] burglary.' They seized numerous items, and the entire search took about an hour. D was convicted, and the judgments were affirmed by both the California Court of Appeal and the California Supreme Court. They held that since the arresting officers had procured the warrant 'in good faith,' and since in any event, they had had sufficient information to constitute probable cause for D's arrest, that arrest had been lawful. The search was valid on the ground that it had been incident to a valid arrest. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.