The People of the State of Colorado, Petitioner v. Kevin Keith McKnight, Respondent. — Coats, J., Dissenting

Summary

Chief Justice Coats dissented from the majority's conclusion that a trained drug-detection dog's sniff of air outside a lawfully stopped vehicle constituted a search under the Colorado Constitution. He argued that state legalization of limited marijuana possession did not create a reasonable expectation of privacy in marijuana odors exposed to public air, did not authorize protection for conduct that remains federally criminal, and did not justify adopting a separate state exclusionary rule without analysis of its scope or exceptions. Justice Samour, dissenting separately, likewise would have held that McKnight had no reasonable expectation of privacy in odors escaping into public air and would have reversed the court of appeals.