The smell of burnt marijuana is no longer grounds to search a vehicle, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The ruling stems from a traffic stop in 2020 during which officers pulled over Ryan Redmond for traveling 73 mph in a 70 mph zone on U.

In a 6-0 ruling, the court found that cannabis laws in Illinois had evolved to the point that just catching a whiff of burnt weed is no longer enough probable cause for police to search a vehicle.

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled 6-0 that without other suspicious circumstances, such as a driver failing to stop for some time, or a bud in plain view, the search was unjustified.

An odor of burnt marijuana doesn’t justify a search of a car without a warrant in Illinois. That’s the ruling Thursday from the Illinois Supreme Court.

An odor of burnt marijuana doesn’t justify a search of a car without a warrant in Illinois, the state Supreme Court said Thursday. The court affirmed lower court rulings that threw out evidence of a small amount of marijuana discovered during a traffic ...

Reversing a previous ruling from before the legalization of marijuana, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the smell of burnt cannabis alone is not enough to justify a warrantless police search of a vehicle.