The state Supreme Court ruled Friday that a Vermont couple cannot be prosecuted in state court for drug violations with evidence seized by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. The court, in a 3-2 decision, said the federal law used by the Border Patrol agent to search the Vermont car after it was stopped during a roving patrol just south of the Canadian border in August 2018 did not comply with the state constitutional guarantee against unreasonable searches. “Evidence obtained in violation of the Vermont Constitution may not be admitted at trial in a state prosecution because such evidence ‘eviscerates our most sacred rights, impinges on individual privacy, perverts our judicial process, distorts any notion of fairness, and encourages official misconduct,'” said the majority decision, written by Justice William Cohen, who was citing an earlier case.
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Court: Vermont pair stopped near border can’t be prosecuted
