Traffic Stops and Passengers

In Brendlin v. California , The United States Supreme Court ruled that when an officer makes a traffic stop , passengers in the vehicle are seized for Fourth Amendment purposes and therefore have standing to challenge the stop. In the opinion written by Justice Souter , the Court found that a generic traffic stop " necessarily curtails the travel a passenger has chosen as much as it halts the driver."Further " the police activity that normally amounts to intrusion on privacy and personal; security does not normally distinguish between passenger and driver."