States ask Supreme Court to halt unjustified searches of lawful gun owners

By Chris Eger

The states argue that current practice means a law enforcement officer can perform a frisk if a subject is thought both armed and dangerous, while the case they are challenging allows it if just suspected to be armed. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP)
Five states want to overturn a ruling that an officer is justified in searching a person if they suspect that that person has a weapon, even if it’s being carried legally.
Attorneys general from Indiana, Michigan, Texas and Utah joined West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in filing an amicus brief Wednesday to the Supreme Court for reviewing a Fourth Amendment case.
Their amicus filing aims to protect Second Amendment rights of lawful gun owners to carry a weapon without law enforcement concluding an individual at a warrantless stop is “presently dangerous” and subject to a search.
The filing comes in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the case of Shaquille Montel Robinson, who was stopped and searched by police in West Virginia for not wearing a seatbelt and found with a gun in his pocket. Robinson, a felon, had sought the evidence that he was armed suppressed, arguing the gun was found through an illegal search that violated his Fourth

Source: Guns.com