Virginia v. Moore Case Brief Summary | Law Case Explained

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Virginia v. Moore | 553 U.S. 164 (2008)
The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. But what happens if police perform a search after an arrest that state law says they shouldn’t have made? The United States Supreme Court considered the Fourth Amendment implications of state law arrest restrictions in Virginia versus Moore.
Two Portsmouth police officers heard over police radio that someone known as “Chubs” was driving with a suspended license. One of the officers recognized that as the nickname of David Lee Moore. When the officers spotted Moore, they stopped his car and arrested him for the misdemeanor of driving on a suspended license. They then searched him and found large amounts of crack cocaine and cash. Moore was charged with possessing cocaine with intent to distribute.
Under Virginia state law, the officers should’ve issued Moore a citation for driving with a suspended license instead of arresting him. Moore filed a pretrial motion to suppress the evidence from the arrest search, arguing that the search violated the Fourth Amendment. The trial court denied the motion and found Moore guilty. A panel of the court of appeals reversed the conviction on Fourth Amendment grounds, but then the full court reinstated it. The Virginia supreme court reversed it again, on the grounds that the officers should’ve issued Moore a citation instead of arresting him, and the Fourth Amendment doesn’t permit searches incident to citations.
The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.
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