The People v. Mayo

Mr. Justice Daily,

dissenting:

For reasons more fully stated in my specially concurring opinion filed in People v. Watkins, ante p. 11, I dissent from the language in the present case which repudiates the long-standing rule that a search of the person following a valid arrest is not unreasonable within the meaning of constitutional prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures.

I would add also that the two decisions present a strange anomaly. In Watkins a search of the person was found unreasonable upon the basis of decisions which held that searches of automobiles violated constitutional standards. In the present case the Watkins decision is used as authority to invalidate the search of a vehicle. To me, this is a more “indiscriminate application of legal concepts,” (People v. Watkins, p. 18,) than is the uniform application of the rule that a search of the person is a valid incident to a lawful arrest for any crime, major or minor.