Supreme Court to hear Pennsylvania rental car search case

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has agreed to take a case about the rights of someone driving a rental car not in his or her name.

The case the court will consider comes from Pennsylvania and involves a man who drove a car rented by his girlfriend. The car’s rental agreement authorized Terrence Byrd’s girlfriend to drive the car, but his girlfriend gave him permission. Byrd was pulled over and says officers told him that because his name wasn’t on the rental agreement they could search the car without his permission. Inside they found heroin and a bulletproof vest.

Byrd argues that the search was improper. An appeals court found he didn’t have any expectation of privacy because he wasn’t named on the rental agreement. The Supreme Court will review that ruling.