{"id":64538,"date":"2026-07-27T00:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T05:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=64538"},"modified":"2026-07-26T23:03:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T04:03:57","slug":"mi-possession-of-mj-thats-only-a-civil-infraction-doesnt-justify-search-of-car-under-automobile-exception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=64538","title":{"rendered":"MI: Possession of MJ that&#8217;s only a civil infraction doesn&#8217;t justify search of car under automobile exception"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Michigan, by ballot initiative, made possession of a small amount of marijuana a civil infraction. The smell of marijuana here only appeared to be a civil infraction and not a crime, so the automobile exception did not justify the search of defendant\u2019s car for evidence of a crime. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courts.michigan.gov\/4a1601\/siteassets\/case-documents\/uploads\/opinions\/final\/sct\/167737_60_01.pdf\">People v. Wilkins<\/a>, 2026 Mich. LEXIS 1461 (July 22, 2026). From the syllabus by the court:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>In this case, where the trooper had probable cause to believe that the vehicle contained a small amount of marijuana\u2014i.e., that a civil infraction had occurred, but not that the vehicle contained evidence of a crime\u2014this probable cause was insufficient to support a warrantless search under the automobile exception. That the trooper smelled marijuana was also insufficient, alone or combined with the passenger&#8217;s statement indicating that she may have had a small amount of marijuana, to establish probable cause to believe that a criminal amount of marijuana was present in the car.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michigan, by ballot initiative, made possession of a small amount of marijuana a civil infraction. The smell of marijuana here only appeared to be a civil infraction and not a crime, so the automobile exception did not justify the search &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=64538\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-automobile-exception","category-probable-cause"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64539,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64538\/revisions\/64539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}