On January 9, 2007, two Springfield, Missouri, Police Department officers made a traffic stop of a vehicle driven by Claude X. The purpose of the stop was to arrest X’s passenger, Melissa Owen, who had a pending warrant for check- kiting. Once the officers made visual contact with Owen, the officers stopped X’s car and instructed Owen to get out of the car. Ms. Owen did not bring her belongings with her when she got out of the car. One of the officers called dispatch to verify Owen’s warrant and requested backup from a K–9 officer. Another officer arrived at the scene with his service dog, Marko. X was told to get out of the car so that it could be searched. X did get out of the car but then also locked it and refused to allow the officers to search. X was handcuffed for obstruction and the officers took away his keys to the car.
At that time, Marko searched (sniffed) the exterior of X’s car. Marko alerted to the car’s rear bumper. The officers began to search the trunk of the vehicle and found containers with drugs in them along with a weighing scale. X’s lawyer moved to have the evidence excluded because the drugs were found without a warrant. Should the judge exclude the evidence or is it admissible? Be sure to refer to the Arizona v. Gant case on p. 5 in developing your answer and explaining why. [U.S. v. Claude X, 648 F.3d 599 (8th Cir.)]