At the end of October, the U.S. Supreme Court will take up two Florida cases dealing with privacy and the use of surveillance dogs by police. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) held this discussion at the National Press Club.
In Florida v. Jardines, the Florida Supreme Court decided that the use of a dog to sniff a suspect's house for marijuana violated the Fourth Amendment. In Florida v. Harris, the Florida Supreme Court challenged the reliability of a sniffer dog that detected ingredients for methamphetamine production in a suspect's car.
Panelists included: Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies at the Cato Institute; Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center; Danielle Spinelli, Partner and Supreme Court Litigator at WilmerHale; and Jeffrey Weiner, Criminal Defense Lawyer and Dog Sniff Expert.
David G. Savage, Supreme Court Reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, moderated the discussion.