Potter Stewart

“ When an arrest is made, it is reasonable for the arresting officer to search the person arrested in order to remove any weapons that the latter might seek to use in order to resist arrest or effect his escape. ”

“ In any event, we cannot join in characterizing the invasion of privacy that results from a top-to-bottom search of a man's house as 'minor.' And we can see no reason why, simply because some interference with an individual's privacy and freedom of movement has lawfully taken place, further intrusions should automatically be allowed despite the absence of a warrant that the Fourth Amendment would otherwise require.↑ Although the warrant was issued at 10:39 a.m. ”

“ A gun on a table or in a drawer in front of one who is arrested can be as dangerous to the arresting officer as one concealed in the clothing of the person arrested. There is ample justification, therefore, for a search of the arrestee's person and the area 'within his immediate control' construing that phrase to mean the area from within which he might gain possession of a weapon or destructible evidence. ”

“ The Court held that the arrest and others made subsequently had been valid, but that the unexplained failure of the agents to procure a search warrant-in spite of the fact that they had had more than enough time before the raid to do so rendered the search unlawful. The opinion stated:
'It is a cardinal rule that, in seizing goods and articles, law enforcement agents must secure and use search warrants wherever reasonably practicable. ”

“ And subsequent history has confirmed the wisdom of that requirement.
'A search or seizure without a warrant as an incident to a lawful arrest has always been considered to be a strictly limited right. It grows out of the inherent necessities of the situation at the time of the arrest. But there must be something more in the way of necessity than merely a lawful arrest.' Id., at 705, 708, 68 S.Ct., at 1232, 1234.
In 1950, two years after Trupiano, [3] came United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 70 S.Ct. ”

“ He was convicted, and the judgments of conviction were affirmed by both the California Court of Appeal, 61 Cal.Rptr. 714, and the California Supreme Court, 68 Cal.2d 436, 67 Cal.Rptr. 421, 439 P.2d 333. Both courts accepted the petitioner's contention that the arrest warrant was invalid because the supporting affidavit was set out in conclusory terms, [1] but held that since the arresting officers had procured the warrant 'in good faith,' and since in any event they had had sufficient information to constitute probable cause for the petitioner's arrest, that arrest had been lawful. ”

“ True, by hypothesis the power would not exist, if the supposed offender were not found on the premises; but it is small consolation to know that one's papers are safe only so long as one is not at home.' Id., at 203. ”

“ The stamps were admitted into evidence at the defendant's trial, and this Court affirmed his conviction, rejecting the contention that the warrantless search had been unlawful. The Court held that the search in its entirety fell within the principle giving law enforcement authorities ' (t) he right 'to search the place where the arrest is made in order to find and seize things connected with the crime * * *." Id., at 61, 70 S.Ct., at 433. Harris was regarded as 'ample authority' for that conclusion. ”