State v. Malloy, 2021 UT 3 (Jan. 21, 2021)

The court of appeals affirmed the district court’s denial of a motion to dismiss, relying on State v. James which held that because officers can direct a driver to leave a vehicle incident to a traffic stop, there is no “functional” or constitutionally relevant difference if the officer opens the car door.  The supreme court repudiated and otherwise limited James, holding that “it can no longer be said that it makes no constitutional difference whether a police officer opens a car door or asks a driver to do so,” based upon Fourth Amendment law developments shifting the focus from one of reasonable expectation of privacy to “an originalist, property-based inquiry.”  The court nevertheless affirmed the denial of the motion to suppress based upon the officer’s objectively reasonable reliance on then-valid precedent.