The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday held that the police use of a trained dog to sniff outside a home for the presence of illegal drugs was a search, in a case being watched for its implications on the use of such dogs in the schools.
"The government's use of trained police dogs to investigate the home and its immediate surroundings is a 'search' within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in a 5-4 decision in Florida v. Jardines (Case No. 11-564).