Harden v. State

I respectfully dissent. Had the officer taken possession of the automobile when he arrested Harden, no doubt the search under review could be sustained as an inventory search, but that is not the case. The Supreme Court’s decision in New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981), is not authority for an officer arresting a stopped driver for traffic law violations to conduct a search of an automobile in every case regardless of the circumstances shown, yet that is essentially the state’s argument in this case. The *402facts in State v. McClendon, 490 So.2d 1308 (Fla. 1st…