What is Rodriguez vs U.S?

Rodriguez v United States was a US Supreme Court case decided in April 2015 which discussed when a police officer may extend the length of a traffic stop in order to have a drug dog conduct a free air sniff of a vehicle.  The court held that a police stop which exceeds the time needed to handle the matter for which the traffic stop was originally initiated violates the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution.

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    The traffic stop becomes unlawful if it is prolonged beyond the time reasonably required to complete the mission of issuing a citation or a warning in the first place.  Rodriguez is certain to be a case relied upon by many criminal defense attorneys in the defense of traffic stop and searches of vehicles as it’s the first time in years that the US Supreme Court has held that a particular action on the part of law enforcement violated the Fourth Amendment relative to a traffic stop and search of a vehicle.