The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that scattered marijuana crumbs in a vehicle do not violate the state's open container law and cannot justify a warrantless search, drawing a clear legal distinction between a rolled joint and debris on a floorboard.
Justice Goodwin Liu wrote the unanimous decision, stating that marijuana in a vehicle "must be of a usable quantity, in imminently usable condition, and readily accessible to an occupant" to constitute a violation, according to reporting by KQED and the San Francisco Chronicle.
The case arose from a November 5, 2021 traffic stop in Sacramento. Officers pulled over a vehicle for allegedly failing to stop behind a limit line. Officer Conner Mills noticed a rolling tray in the back seat. Officer Mark Thrall spotted what he described as marijuana crumbs scattered on the rear floorboard.
Police swept up 0.36 grams of suspected marijuana from the floor, approximately the weight of a dollar bill. The driver showed no signs of impairment, had valid registration and license, and no outstanding warrants. When asked to exit the vehicle, passenger Davonyae Sellers admitted to having a firearm in the car. Officers recovered an unregistered handgun during the subsequent search.
A magistrate judge, trial court, and the Third District Court of Appeal all upheld the search, concluding the marijuana crumbs constituted an open container violation and provided probable cause. The Supreme Court reversed all three lower rulings.
The court drew a functional comparison to alcohol. A driver can reach for an open beer can at a stoplight and take a drink. That same driver cannot realistically collect scattered crumbs from a rear floorboard and smoke them while operating the vehicle.
Liu's opinion emphasized the disconnect between the evidence and the law's purpose. "Marijuana that is not in a state to be consumed or that cannot be reached while driving, operating, or riding in a vehicle has no potential for impaired driving," he wrote, per Jalopnik.
The ruling also clarified that California's open container statute does not require marijuana to be in a sealed container. Liu noted that marijuana could be lawfully transported unsealed as long as it remains inaccessible and not ready for immediate consumption. Previous Court of Appeal opinions had incorrectly assumed a sealing requirement existed in the law.
The case highlighted what dissenting Third District Court of Appeal Justice Elana Duarte described as a targeted traffic stop. She noted the vehicle carried African American and Hispanic individuals and pointed out the absurdity of criminalizing 0.36 grams of scattered marijuana while a sealed baggie in the front seat containing 80 times that amount would be legal, according to Metropolitan News-Enterprise.
California voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2016 while maintaining criminal penalties for open containers during vehicle operation. The law aimed to prevent impaired driving, not to criminalize trace amounts of a legal substance.
Officers found no rolling papers, lighters, matches, blunts, or vaporizers in the vehicle. Nothing suggested the marijuana had been recently consumed or was about to be. The Supreme Court concluded police lacked probable cause for the search from the start.
The decision affects how police can justify vehicle searches across California. A rolled joint sitting in a cupholder remains an open container. A pre-rolled blunt in the center console qualifies. Crumbs on the floor do not.
Sellers challenged the search and the firearm charge that resulted from it. The Supreme Court's ruling means the evidence from that search may be suppressed, though the case returns to lower courts for further proceedings.
For California drivers, the message is straightforward: spilled marijuana is legally indistinguishable from spilled beer. Both are messes, neither is an open container, and neither gives police the right to search your car.
