Torres v. Puerto Rico

1979-06-18

Headline: Court strikes down Puerto Rico law allowing warrantless luggage searches of travelers from the U.S., holding the Fourth Amendment applies to the Commonwealth and blocking such searches without probable cause or a warrant.

Holding: The Court held that the Fourth Amendment applies in full to Puerto Rico and that Public Law 22’s authorization of warrantless, probable-cause-free luggage searches arriving from the United States violated that Amendment, requiring suppression of the evidence.

Real World Impact:

Invalidates warrantless luggage searches by Puerto Rico police of travelers from the U.S.
Requires suppression of evidence obtained without probable cause or warrant
Affirms that the Fourth Amendment applies in full to Puerto Rico

Topics: searches at airports, Fourth Amendment, territorial rights, drug enforcement

Summary

Background

Terry Torres, a Florida resident, arrived in San Juan from Miami and was stopped under a 1975 Puerto Rico law that authorized police to inspect luggage of people arriving from the United States. Torres objected, asked to call an attorney, and was denied; he unlocked his bags and officers found marijuana, drug paraphernalia, and about $250,000. He was convicted and sentenced to one to three years, and the Puerto Rico Supreme Court upheld the conviction because fewer than a majority of all justices had voted to strike down the law.

Reasoning

The Supreme Court examined whether the Fourth Amendment applies in Puerto Rico and whether the statute met its requirements. The Court held that the Fourth Amendment does apply to the Commonwealth and that Public Law 22 did not require probable cause or a warrant. The justices rejected Puerto Rico’s request to treat the island like an “intermediate border” where normal Fourth Amendment protections would not apply, and found the warrantless search unconstitutional.

Real world impact

Because the search violated the Fourth Amendment, the evidence obtained should have been suppressed, and the Supreme Court reversed the Puerto Rico court’s judgment and remanded for further proceedings. The ruling prevents Puerto Rico police from conducting the kind of warrantless, probable-cause-free luggage searches authorized by Public Law 22 and affirms that federal search protections govern searches in the Commonwealth.

Dissents or concurrances

A separate opinion concurring in the judgment, joined by three justices, agreed that the Fourth Amendment applies in full to Puerto Rico and that the search and conviction could not stand.