Thomas M. Butler v. United States

After pulling over appellant Thomas Butler for having broken brake lights, a police officer stepped Mr. Butler out of the car and promptly “started conducting a search” of him from shoulder to toe “[b]e-cause of the odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle.” On appeal from his convictions for possessing the drugs that police found in Mr. Butler’s shoe, Mr. Butler argues (in addition to contending that police had no probable cause to arrest) that the officer conducted “a simple evi-dentiary search, unconnected to an arrest” when the officer searched his person, and that the government cannot…