Waugh v. State

“[F]or the purpose of the Fourth Amendment there is a constitutional difference between houses and cars.” Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U. S. 42, 52, 90 S. Ct. 1975, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970). As the ever-growing common law continues to require fresh responses to fresh questions, it poses (for Maryland) the new riddle: “Is a suitcase more like a house or more like a car?” In terms of functional analysis — the weighing of the nature of the sanctuary against the investigative imperative — a suitcase is, we hold, “more like a car.” Before supplying the rationale for the answer, let us set the stage for…