In the 1983 case Payne v. Virginia, the United States Supreme Court addressed a dispute over whether or not an individual could be tried twice for the same crime in different states without violating their Fifth Amendment rights against double jeopardy. The defendant, Larry Gene Payne, was initially convicted of murder and robbery in Maryland. Subsequently, he was also charged with these crimes in Virginia as they were part of a continuous criminal spree that spanned both states. Payne argued this second trial violated his protection from being "twice put in jeopardy." However, the court ruled against him stating that dual sovereignty doctrine allows two states to try and punish someone for the same act because each state is considered its own sovereign entity with its own laws and interests to protect.

In the dissenting opinion for Payne v. Virginia, Justice Brennan argued that the majority's decision to uphold a warrantless search of an automobile trunk violated Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. He contended that there was no exigency or immediate danger justifying such a search without a warrant in this case. Furthermore, he disagreed with the majority's expansion of the "automobile exception" to include closed containers within vehicles, arguing it eroded constitutional safeguards and gave law enforcement too much discretion in conducting invasive searches without judicial oversight. Brennan also criticized their reliance on previous cases where circumstances were significantly different from those at hand as inappropriate precedents for this ruling.