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California V Acevedo The California V Acevedo case greatly impacted the United States in how the police can search an automobile; this case gave police much broader powers to search vehicles without a warrant. The court adopted a single rule: “The police may search an automobile and the containers within it where they have probably cause to believe contraband or evidence is contained.” Justices White, Stevens, and Marshall objected (Oyez Project). This impacts everyone who owns a vehicle in the United States, if police have suspicions that you posses an illegal substance in your vehicle they do not need a warrant and can search the package inside your vehicle on the spot. In the California V Acevedo case California police officers saw Charles Acevedo enter the apartment of Jamie Daza and leave with a package (Oyez Project). Earlier, police were informed that Mr. Daza picked up a Federal Express package known to contain marijuana (Case Briefs). The package that the defendant held looked similar to the Federal Express marijuana package (Case Briefs). Police, concerned that the package would be compromised, followed the defendant, stopped him and searched the package without a warrant to find marijuana (Case Briefs). When Acevedo was being trialed in the lower courts they agreed with him when he pleaded that the police did not have the right to search his car without a proper warrant. It was then taken to the Supreme Court, he pleaded to keep the marijuana as evidence, since the police had not had a proper search warrant to go inside his car (Oyez Project). When the trial court denied his proposition, Acevedo pleaded guilty (Case Briefs). In a 6-3 decision authored by Justice Harry Blackmun, the Court reversed the Court of Appeal and ruled that the "automobile exception" to the Fourth Amendment's general search-warrant requirement is broad enough to cover a situation where the police only have probable cause to believe there is evidence in a specific movable

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