State v. Conners

OPINION

The question before us is whether a police officer conducting a *185Terry1 pat-down search of an individual’s clothing violates an individual’s Fourth Amendment rights by continuing to feel an unidentified object after ruling out that the object could be a weapon. Applying the “plain-feel” doctrine announced in Minnesota v. Dickerson, 508 U.S. 366 (1993), we answer this question in the affirmative and conclude that the methamphetamine evidence seized from respondent Satan Renee Conners is the fruit of an unconstitutional search.

FACTS

One night in Pahrump, Nevada, in March 1998, Nye County…