Post details: CA10: Overbroad search warrant was general warrant exposing officer to civil liability
05/29/09
CA10: Overbroad search warrant was general warrant exposing officer to civil liability
A search warrant for any evidence of crime was unconstitutionally overbroad and not limited by the affidavit. Severance was not possible. Cassady v. Goering, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 11736 (10th Cir. May 28, 2009):
The warrant here is ungrammatical and difficult to read in many respects. It authorized the search of the entire farm, including Mr. Cassady’s house, and the seizure of “[a]ny & all narcotics,” “[a]ny and all illegal contraband” and various specific items mostly related to a narcotics operation. See attached Ex. A. In addition, however, and most damaging to Mr. Goering’s argument, the warrant expressly permitted the search and seizure of “all other evidence of criminal activity” as well as personal property that was stolen, embezzled, or otherwise illegal; or was designed, intended, or had been used to commit a criminal offense; or would be material evidence in a criminal prosecution in Colorado or any other state; or the seizure of which was expressly required, authorized, or permitted by any Colorado statute. Id. Hence, the warrant did not confine the scope of the search to any particular crime. The officers only had probable cause to search for evidence related to marijuana cultivation, yet the warrant authorized the seizure of all possible evidence of any crime in any jurisdiction. Consequently, “[t]he warrant[] allowed precisely the kind of rummaging through a person’s belongings, in search of evidence of even previously unsuspected crimes or of no crime at all, that the fourth amendment proscribes.” Voss, 774 F.2d at 405.
The affidavit, which was incorporated by reference, does not save the warrant. See attached Ex. B. The only grounds it provides are Queen’s statement that he saw marijuana plants on the farm, and Mr. Cassady’s 1992 arrest for a marijuana-related offense. It makes no mention of the affiant’s training or expertise in narcotics investigations, and it is no more particular than the warrant, containing virtually identical language describing the items to be seized.
We cannot accept Mr. Goering’s argument that the officers understood the language permitting seizure as limited to evidence of marijuana-related activities only. We have previously invalidated warrants substantially more particularized than the one at issue here.
. . .
Mr. Goering contends “[t]here is no constitutional violation merely because of words in a warrant where there is no resulting unconstitutional search.” Aplt. Br. at 21. Even assuming the general rummaging that apparently occurred here could conceivably be characterized as a “constitutional” search, it is well-settled that “mere words” in a warrant in and of themselves can violate the Fourth Amendment. In Groh v. Ramirez, 540 U.S. 551 (2004), the Supreme Court rejected the argument that a lawfully conducted search could be reasonable under the Fourth Amendment despite an invalid warrant:
We have clearly stated that the presumptive rule against warrantless searches applies with equal force to searches whose only defect is a lack of particularity in the warrant. ... The uniformly applied rule is that a search conducted pursuant to a warrant that fails to conform to the particularity requirement of the Fourth Amendment is unconstitutional.
Id. at 559-60 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). Thus, Mr. Goering’s attempt to separate the authorization of the search from the execution of the search is a red herring – a violation of the warrant requirement is itself a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
. . .
Neither Mr. Goering nor the dissent point us to even one case where the severability doctrine has been applied to a warrant containing such a broad and invasive provision authorizing a search for and seizure of any and all evidence of criminal activity which is wholly unrelated to the crime for which there was probable cause. As we have stressed, severance is not appropriate in every case.
This was the officer's first search warrant application.
Pingbacks:
No Pingbacks for this post yet...
FourthAmendment.com
Notes on Use
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| << < | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | ||||||
Search
©
2003-10
Online since Feb. 24, 2003
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $
Contact / About
www.johnwesleyhall.com
www.LawofCriminalDefense.com
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court
Federal Appellate Courts
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth
Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth
Circuit
Seventh
Circuit
Eighth
Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh
Circuit
D.C.
Circuit
Military Courts: C.A.
A.F., Army,
AF, N-M,
CG
Hall's links to state
opinions
Google Scholar
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate
Courts
LexisONE
free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
Most recent SCOTUS cases:
2009-10 Term:
Cert. granted:
City of Ontario v. Quon, 08-1338
granted Dec. 14, 2009 (ScotusWiki)
Decided:
Michigan
v. Fisher, decided Dec. 7, 2009 (per curiam) (ScotusWiki)
2008-09 Term:
Decided:
Herring
v. United States, 129 S. Ct. 695, 172 L.Ed.2d 496, decided Jan. 13 (ScotusWiki)
Pearson
v. Callahan, 129 S. Ct. 808, 172 L. Ed. 2d 565, decided Jan. 21 (ScotusWiki)
Arizona
v. Johnson, 129 S. Ct. 781, 172 L. Ed. 2d 694, decided Jan. 26 (ScotusWiki)
Arizona
v. Gant, 129 S. Ct. 1710, 173 L. Ed. 2d 485, decided April 21 (ScotusWiki)
Safford
Unified School District #1 v. Redding, 129 S. Ct. 2633, 174 L. Ed. 2d 354,
decided June 25 (ScotusWiki)
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
SCOTUSWiki
S. Ct.
Docket
Solicitor General's
site
Briefs
online (but no amicus briefs)
Curiae (Yale
Law)
Oyez
Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct.
Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct.
Com't'ry: Law.com
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne
Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com
$
Lexis.com
(criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th
Amd)
Westlaw.com
$
F.R.Crim.P.
41
www.fd.org
DOJ
Computer Search Manual
USSS
computer search website
Talkleft "It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people. And so, while we are concerned here with a shabby defrauder, we must deal with his case in the context of what are really the great themes expressed by the Fourth Amendment." "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going because you might not get there." "There ought to be limits on freedom." "The course of true law pertaining to searches and seizures, as enunciated
here, has not–to put it mildly–run smooth." "A search is a search, even if it happens to disclose nothing but the
bottom of a turntable." "For the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly
exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth
Amendment protection. ... But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in
an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected." "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain
a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
ACLU on privacy
Privacy
Foundation
Electronic Privacy
Information Center
Criminal
Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
How Appealing Blog
—United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 69 (1950) (Frankfurter,
J., dissenting)
—Yogi Berra
—George W. Bush (May 1999)
—Chapman v. United States, 365 U.S. 610, 618 (1961) (Frankfurter, J.,
concurring).
—Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 325 (1987)
—Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351 (1967)
—Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania (1759)
“A patriot must be ready to defend his country against his government.”
—Edward Abbey
“Experience should teach us to be most on guard to
protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born
to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded
rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men
of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
—United States v. Olmstead, 277 U.S. 438, 479 (1925) (Brandeis,
J., dissenting)
"Freedom is just another word for nothing
left to lose."
—Kris Kristopherson, "Me and Bobby McGee" (sung by Janis Joplin)
“Liberty—the freedom from unwarranted
intrusion by government—is as easily lost through insistent nibbles by
government officials who seek to do their jobs too well as by those whose purpose
it is to oppress; the piranha can be as deadly as the shark.”
—United States v. $124,570, 873 F.2d 1240, 1246 (9th Cir. 1989)
"You can't always get what you want /
But if you try sometimes / You just might find / You get what you need."
—Mick Jagger & Keith Richards
"In Germany, they first came for the communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for
the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came
for me–and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."
—Martin Niemöller (1945) [he served seven years in a concentration
camp]
“You know, most men would get discouraged by
now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
—Pepé LePew
"There is never enough time, unless you are serving it."
—Malcolm Forbes
"The point of the Fourth Amendment, which often is not grasped by zealous officers,
is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which
reasonable men draw from evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that
those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being
judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting
out crime."
—Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948)
Archives
- February 2010 (34)
- January 2010 (102)
- December 2009 (104)
- November 2009 (86)
- October 2009 (80)
- September 2009 (62)
- August 2009 (56)
- July 2009 (69)
- June 2009 (53)
- May 2009 (59)
- April 2009 (70)
- March 2009 (55)
- More...
Misc
XML Feeds
What is RSS?
Who's Online?
- Guest Users: 23
powered by
