CA11: Davis creates a blanket rule not subject to any wiggle room

Davis creates a blanket rule that a pre-Gant search was governed by Belton. There is no Fourth Amendment basis or justification for weighing whether then defendant was “targeted” for a stop by the police just to conduct a search incident. United States v. Owens, 445 Fed. Appx. 248 (11th Cir. 2011):

In the instant case, the arresting officers stopped Owens with probable cause to believe that he was driving on a suspended license, and searched the passenger compartment of his vehicle based on a proper understanding of pre-Gant law. Contrary to Owens’s argument on appeal, the Davis decision established a blanket rule that the good-faith exception applies to searches performed in reasonable reliance on then-binding appellate precedent. Although the Davis Court discussed the need to weigh the costs and benefits of suppression, it did so only in the context of formulating this blanket rule. Accordingly, the Davis analysis does not require us to consider alleged misconduct that fell short of violating the Fourth Amendment—as understood at the time of the search—nor does it require consideration of unrelated constitutional violations.

Fifteen minutes was not too long for a stop. “Officer Moore approached the car and noticed marijuana on Marsh’s shirt while Officer Nelson was still writing Johnson’s traffic citation. From that point, Officer Moore had at least a reasonable suspicion that Marsh possessed marijuana and, thus, could search the passenger area where Marsh had been sitting and the handgun was found.” United States v. Marsh, 443 Fed. Appx. 941, 2011 FED App. 0733N (6th Cir. 2011) (unpublished).*