United States v. Phillip Scott Ragsdale

CLARK, Circuit Judge:

In this automobile search case we must strike a proper constitutional balance between the competing interests of society in the detection of crime and the individual’s Fourth Amendment right to be left alone. The defendant, Phillip Scotty Ragsdale, was convicted of bank robbery. The pivotal evidentiary ruling related to monies discovered in the course of a warrantless search of Ragsdale’s car on the highway after he had been stopped for a speeding offense. Viewing the totality of the circumstances present, we find the search to have been a reasonable one which did not…