WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to rule on whether police officers are free to search a parked vehicle whenever they arrest a driver or a passenger.
Prosecutors asked the court to set “a clear, bright-line rule” that permits officers to search a vehicle whenever an arrest is made, even if the handcuffed person has been taken away.
The court also wrestled with a Michigan law that shields pharmaceutical companies from product liability lawsuits, unless they committed fraud to get their drug approved. The dispute stems from several lawsuits filed against Warner-Lambert over its diabetes drug Rezulin, which was linked to nearly 400 deaths.
In another case Monday, the court suggested the federal government may be stretching the anti-money laundering law too far in prosecutions of small-time criminals. Justices wondered why the mere concealment of cash in a car headed for Mexico meets the standard for an international money laundering charge.
