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Extended Traffic Stops Ruled Unconstitutional

2015

In a 6-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court decides in Rodriguez v. United States that police officers may not prolong traffic stops to wait for drug-sniffing dogs to check the vehicle. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg writes that a “police stop exceeding the time needed to handle the matter for which the stop was made violates the Constitution’s shield against unreasonable seizures.”