Police can use evidence found during illegal stops, Supreme Court rules

The U.S. Supreme Court today delivered a damaging blow to the Fourth Amendment by making it even easier for law enforcement to evade its requirement that stops be based on reasonable suspicion, as a New York Times editorial puts it.

Justices ruled 5 to 3 [PDF] that a police officers illegal stop of a man on the street should not prevent using against him any evidence obtained from a search connected to that stop.

(more…)