## Facts

- Manuel Flores-Montano sought to enter the United States from Mexico at the Otay Mesa, California, port of entry, driving a 1987 Ford Taurus station wagon.
- Customs officers referred the vehicle to secondary inspection after an inspector noticed the gas tank sounded “solid” when tapped.
- A mechanic removed the gas tank, opened an access plate, and discovered approximately 37 kilograms of marijuana concealed inside.
- Flores-Montano was indicted for importing marijuana and for possession with intent to distribute.
- He moved to suppress the marijuana, arguing that removing the gas tank was a “non-routine” border search requiring reasonable suspicion under the Fourth Amendment.
- The district court suppressed the evidence; the Ninth Circuit summarily affirmed.

## Issues

1. Whether the Fourth Amendment requires reasonable suspicion for border officials to remove, disassemble, and search a vehicle’s gas tank for contraband at the international border.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court unanimously reversed and remanded.
- The Court held that customs officers at the international border may remove, disassemble, and reassemble a vehicle’s gas tank without reasonable suspicion.
- The Court rejected the Ninth Circuit’s use of a “routine/non-routine” balancing framework for vehicle searches at the border.
- The Court noted, without deciding, that some property searches might be so destructive as to require some level of suspicion, but this search was not shown to be destructive in that way.

## Legal Principles

- Under the border-search doctrine, the government may conduct suspicionless inspections at the international border to prevent entry of contraband and other unwanted effects.
- Standards developed for highly intrusive searches of a person (linked to dignity and bodily privacy) do not transfer to vehicle searches at the border.
- Automobiles seeking entry may be searched at the border, and travelers have a reduced expectation of privacy there compared to the interior.
- The Fourth Amendment protects property interests as well as privacy, but interference with possessory interests in ordinary vehicle components at the border is generally justified by the government’s border interests.
- A property search that is so destructive as to be qualitatively different from ordinary inspection may present a different Fourth Amendment question.

## Conclusion

The Court held that removing and disassembling a vehicle’s gas tank at the international border is a permissible suspicionless border search, and it reversed the suppression order while leaving open whether unusually destructive property searches could require suspicion.


United States v. Flores-Montano, 541 U.S. 149 (2004)