Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-402_h315.pdf
Page Number: 90

Cite as:  585 U. S. ____ (2018) 

19 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

example,  have  long  “compel[led]  the  production  of  evi-
dence”  in  order  to  determine  “whether  there  is  probable
cause to believe a crime has been committed.”  Calandra, 
414 U. S., at 343 (emphasis added).  Almost by definition,
then,  grand  juries  will  be  unable  at  first  to  demonstrate
“the  probable  cause  required  for  a  warrant.”  Ante,  at  19 
(majority opinion); see also Oklahoma Press, supra, at 213. 
If they are required to do so, the effects are as predictable
as they are alarming: Many investigations will sputter out 
at  the  start,  and  a  host  of  criminals  will  be  able  to evade 
law enforcement’s reach. 

“To  ensure  that  justice  is  done,  it  is  imperative  to  the 
function of courts that compulsory process be available for 
the production of evidence.”  Nixon, 418 U. S., at 709.  For 
over  a  hundred  years,  we  have  understood  that  holding 
subpoenas  to  the  same  standard  as  actual  searches  and 
seizures “would stop much if not all of investigation in the
public  interest  at  the  threshold  of  inquiry.”    Oklahoma 
Press, supra, at 213.  Today a skeptical majority decides to 
put that understanding to the test. 

II 

Compounding its initial error, the Court also holds that 
a defendant has the right under the Fourth Amendment to
object to the search of a third party’s property.  This hold-
ing flouts the clear text of the Fourth Amendment, and it 
cannot  be  defended  under  either  a  property-based  inter-
pretation of that Amendment or our decisions applying the 
reasonable-expectations-of-privacy  test  adopted  in  Katz, 
389  U. S.  347.    By  allowing  Carpenter  to  object  to  the
search  of  a  third  party’s  property,  the  Court  threatens  to 
revolutionize  a  second  and  independent  line  of  Fourth
Amendment doctrine. 

A 
It bears repeating that the Fourth Amendment guaran-