Can your spouse invite the cops in over your objection?

Thanks to Daksya —
Check out this excellent re-cap by Dahlia Lithwick of the Supreme Court’s oral arguments on Georgia v. Randolph. You can get a real sense of what mattered (particularly in 4th amendment terms) to the different Justices (and it doesn’t look good with our new Chief Justice).
I agree with Dahlia’s conclusion:

To my mind, this is not a hard case — and for the same reason O’Connor keeps hammering at this morning. Of course I accept that my expectation of privacy in my home was somewhat diminished the day I married my husband. But his “right” to invite the cops to search my underwear drawer can’t possibly be as forceful as my constitutionally enshrined right to keep them out. Not when there are a dozen other ways for them to rummage around if the situation demands it. Georgia’s view of this case — and apparently the view of the new chief justice — seems to be that a few underwear searches is a small price to pay for the joy of not living alone.

Here’s my earlier post on the subject.

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