The Court's "Two Model" Approach to the Fourth Amendment: Carpe Diem!

A traveller, lost in a strange city, can occasionally make three wrong turns and find himself on, if not necessarily the right road, at least one that is going in the right direction.Similarly, the United States Supreme Court, lost in the strange city of Fourth Amendment law,' has taken three wrong turns, but may yet find itself on a road that, if not "right," in terms of the Court's precedents, is logically defensible and will lead to a much more straightforward rule for police.However, like the traveller, if the Court fails to recognize what it has done, it will be doomed to continue its wayward course.The three wrong turns that the Court has taken are United States v. Robinson 2 (a'warrantless search incident to any custodial arrest may be a "full body search," including a search of any containers in the suspect's possession), New York v. Belton 3 (a warrantless search incident to arrest of an occupant of an automobile extends to all containers in the passenger compartment), and California v.