Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/328/582/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 04:08:46+00:00

Document:
1. Having obtained clear evidence of violations of the gasoline rationing regulations through sales without coupons and at above-ceiling prices (which are misdemeanors), officers arrested petitioner, president of the corporation which maintained the offending filling station, at his place of business during business hours and demanded ration coupons covering the aggregate amount of sales. After refusing at first, petitioner soon acquiesced and surrendered the coupons. In his trial for possessing them unlawfully (a misdemeanor), petitioner contended that there had been an unlawful search which resulted in seizure of the coupons and their use in evidence against him, in violation of his rights under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. The evidence was conflicting, but the District Court found that he had consented to the search and seizure and that no force or threat of force had been employed to persuade him. He was convicted.
Held: The conviction is affirmed, because this Court cannot say as a matter of law that the District Court's finding of fact was erroneous. Pp. 328 U. S. 593-594.
2. The gasoline ration coupons never became the private property of the holder, but remained at all times the property of the Government, and subject to inspection and recall by it. P. 328 U. S. 588.
3. In the law of searches and seizures, a distinction is made between private papers or documents and public property in the custody of a citizen. Wilson v. United States, 221 U. S. 361. Pp. 328 U. S. 589-591.
4. Whatever may be the limits of inspection under the regulations, law enforcement is not so impotent as to require officers who have the right to inspect a place of business to stand mute when clear evidence of criminal activity is known to them. Amos v. United States, 255 U. S. 313, distinguished. Pp. 328 U. S. 592-593.
5. Where officers seek to inspect public documents at the place of business where they are required to be kept, permissible limits of persuasion are not so narrow as where private papers are sought, since the demand is one of right. P. 328 U. S. 593.
Petitioner was convicted of unlawful possession of gasoline ration coupons in violation of § 2(a) of the Act of June 28, 1940, as amended by the Act of May 31, 1941, and by § 301 of the Second War Powers Act of March 27, 1942. The Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. 151 F.2d 140. This Court granted certiorari. 326 U.S. 711. Affirmed, p. 328 U. S. 594.
violation of the rule of Weeks v. United States, 232 U. S. 383; United States v. Lefkowitz, 285 U. S. 452; and related cases. The case is here on a petition for a writ of certiorari which we granted because of the importance of the question presented.
to cover the amount by which the capacity of the storage tanks had been diminished by sales.
"Q. Did you try to convince Davis that he ought to open that door leading into the private office?"
"A. I didn't try to convince him. I told him that he would have to open that door."
"Q. Did you tell him if he did not, you would break it down?"
"A. I did not tell him that at all."
to raise the window. According to one of the agents, when petitioner saw that, he said, "He don't need to do that. I will open the damned door." Some six weeks later, petitioner was arrested on a warrant and arraigned.
The District Court found that petitioner had consented to the search and seizure, and that his consent was voluntary. The Circuit Court of Appeals did not disturb that finding, although it expressed some doubt concerning it. In its view, the seized coupons were properly introduced into evidence because the search and seizure, being incidental to the arrest, were "reasonable" regardless of petitioner's consent.
And the Fifth Amendment provides in part that "No person . . . shall be compelled in any Criminal Case to be a witness against himself. . . ."
The law of searches and seizures as revealed in the decisions of this Court is the product of the interplay of these two constitutional provisions. Boyd v. United States, 116 U. S. 616. It reflects a dual purpose -- protection of the privacy of the individual, his right to be let alone; protection of the individual against compulsory production of evidence to be used against him. Boyd v. United States, supra; Weeks v. United States, supra. And see Oklahoma Press Pub. Co. v. Walling, 327 U. S. 186.
the search and seizure of private papers. We are dealing here not with private papers or documents, but with gasoline ration coupons, which never became the private property of the holder, but remained at all times the property of the government and subject to inspection and recall by it.
public moneys and falsified the public accounts, he cannot seal his official records and withhold them from the prosecuting authorities on a plea of constitutional privilege against self-crimination. The principle applies not only to public documents in public offices, but also to records required by law to be kept in order that there may be suitable information of transactions which are the appropriate subjects of governmental regulation, and the enforcement of restrictions validly established. There, the privilege which exists as to probate papers, cannot be maintained."
"The fundamental ground of decision in this class of cases is that where, by virtue of their character and the rules of law applicable to them, the books and papers are held subject to examination by the demanding authority, the custodian has no privilege to refuse production although their contents tend to criminate him. In assuming their custody, he has accepted the incident obligation to permit inspection."
The distinction is between property to which the government is entitled to possession and the property to which it is not. [Footnote 11] See 8 Wigmore on Evidence, 3d Ed., § 2259c.
The distinction has had important repercussions in the law, beyond that indicated by Wilson v. United States, supra. For an owner of property who seeks to take it from one who is unlawfully in possession has long been recognized to have greater leeway than he would have but for his right to possession. The claim of ownership will even justify a trespass, and warrant steps otherwise unlawful. Richardson v. Anthony, 12 Vt. 273; Madden v. Brown, 8 App.Div. 454, 40 N.Y.S. 714; State v. Dooley, 121 Mo. 591, 26 S.W. 558.
We do not suggest that officers seeking to reclaim government property may proceed lawlessly and subject to an restraints. Nor do we suggest that the right to inspect under the regulations subjects a dealer to a general search of his papers for the purpose of learning whether he has any coupons subject to inspection and seizure. The nature of the coupons is important here merely as indicating that the officers did not exceed the permissible limits of persuasion in obtaining them.
They appeared on the premises during business hours. They had ocular evidence that a misdemeanor had been committed, a crime to which petitioner was an aider or abetter, [Footnote 12] since, according to the attendant, she made the illegal sales pursuant to petitioner's instructions. Since sales were being made without receipt of coupons from customers, it was fair to assume (unless, as was at no time suggested, the business was being liquidated) that petitioner somewhere had a supply of coupons adequate to replenish his storage tanks. The inspection which was made was an inspection of the tanks attached to the pumps. And the search was of the office adjacent to the pumps -- the place where petitioner transacted his business. Moreover, the officers demanded the coupons on the basis that they were property of the government, and that petitioner was merely the custodian of them. And there was no general, exploratory search. Only the contraband coupons were demanded; only coupons were taken.
mute when such clear evidence of criminal activity is known to them.
all support the conclusion of the District Court. We accordingly affirm the judgment below without reaching the question whether, but for that consent, the search and seizure incidental to the arrest were reasonable.
"(2) . . . Whenever the President is satisfied that the fulfillment of requirements for the defense of the United States will result in a shortage in the supply of any material or of any facilities for defense or for private account or for export, the President may allocate such material or facilities in such manner, upon such conditions and to such extent as he shall deem necessary or appropriate in the public interest and to promote the national defense."
"(3) The President shall be entitled to obtain such information from, require such reports and the keeping of such records by, make such inspection of the books, records, and other writings, premises or property of, any person . . . , and make such investigations, as may be necessary or appropriate, in his discretion, to the enforcement or administration of the provisions of this subsection (a)."
"(5) Any person who willfully performs any act prohibited, or willfully fails to perform any act required by, any provision of this subsection (a) or any rule, regulation, or order thereunder, whether heretofore or hereafter issued, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction, be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both."
"No person shall have in his possession any gasoline deposit certificate, folder, or any coupon book, inventory or other coupon (whether or not such book was issued as a ration book and whether or not such coupon was issued as a ration or as a part of a ration book) or other evidence, or any identifying folder, except the person, or the agent of the person, to whom such book, coupon, certificate or folder was issued or by whom it was acquired in accordance with the provisions of Ration Book [sic] No. 5C."
"Every dealer and intermediate distributor shall be accountable for all gasoline, ration credits, gasoline deposit certificates, coupons and other evidences received by him. Gasoline deposit certificates, coupons and other evidences received at or for a place of business shall be, at all times when the dealer or distributor is open to transact business, retained by him at the place of business for which they were received, or deposited in a ration bank account maintained for that place of business, until such time as they are surrendered to a dealer or distributor in exchange for gasoline, or otherwise surrendered pursuant to Ration Order No. 5C. The aggregate gallonage value of gasoline deposit certificates, coupons and other evidences on hand or on deposit for each place of business of a dealer or intermediate distributor, shall, at all times, be equal to, but not in excess of, the number of gallons of gasoline which would be required to fill the storage capacity of such place of business, as shown by the current certificate of registration, . . . ."
Selling gasoline without receipt of ration coupons, selling gasoline in excess of the ceiling price, or unlawfully possessing ration coupons is a misdemeanor. See § 2(a), supra, note 1 A felony is an offense punished by death or imprisonment for a term exceeding one year. Criminal Code § 335, 18 U.S.C. § 541.
The filling station was located in a building about 250 feet long. One set of pumps was near the entrance to one street; the other set was at the opposite end, near the entrance to another street. The office was located about half-way between the two sets of pumps.
See Ration Order No. 5C, supra, note 1 §§ 1394.8152, 1394.8153.
"gasoline deposit certificates and all coupon books, coupons, and other evidences are, and when issued shall remain, the property of the Office of Price Administration."
"All coupon books, bulk coupons, inventory coupons, and other evidences, are, and when issued shall remain, the property of the Office of Price Administration. The Office of Price Administration may refuse to issue, and may suspend, cancel, revoke, or recall any ration and may require the surrender and return of any coupon book, bulk coupon, inventory coupons or other evidences during suspension or pursuant to revocation or cancellation, whenever it deems it to be in the public interest to do so."
"Upon demand made by any investigator of the Office of Price Administration or by any police officer, constable, or other law enforcement officer of the United States or of any state, county, or local government, every person shall produce for inspection any tire inspection record and gasoline deposit certificate and any gasoline coupon books, coupons, and other evidences in his possession or control, whether valid, invalid, void or expired in accordance with Ration Order No. 5C. Investigators of the Office of Price Administration and all police officers, constables and other law enforcement officers of the United States, or of any state, county or local government are authorized to make such inquiries of any person as may be pertinent to determine whether a violation of Ration Order No. 5C has been or is being committed, and are authorized to receive the surrender of all gasoline deposit certificates, gasoline coupon books, coupons and other evidences acquired by any person otherwise than in accordance with Ration Order No. 5C, whether valid, invalid, void or expired."
"The search for and seizure of stolen or forfeited goods, or goods liable to duties and concealed to avoid the payment thereof, are totally different things from a search for and seizure of a man's private books and papers for the purpose of obtaining information therein contained, or of using them as evidence against him. The two things differ toto coelo. In the one case, the government is entitled to the possession of the property; in the other it is not. The seizure of stolen goods is authorized by the common law; and the seizure of goods forfeited for a breach of the revenue laws, or concealed to avoid the duties payable on them, has been authorized by English statutes for at least two centuries past; and the like seizures have been authorized by our own revenue acts from the commencement of the government. The first statute passed by Congress to regulate the collection of duties, the act of July 31, 1789, 1 St. 29, 43, contains provisions to this effect. As this act was passed by the same Congress which proposed for adoption the original amendments to the Constitution, it is clear that the members of that body did not regard searches and seizures of this kind as 'unreasonable,' and they are not embraced within the prohibition of the amendment. So also, the supervision authorized to be exercised by officers of the revenue over the manufacture or custody of excisable articles, and the entries thereof in books required by law to be kept for their inspection, are necessarily excepted out of the category of unreasonable searches and seizures. So also, the laws which provide for the search and seizure of articles and things which it is unlawful for a person to have in his possession for the purpose of issue or disposition, such as counterfeit coin, lottery tickets, implements of gambling, etc., are not within this category. Commonwealth v. Dana, 2 Met. (Mass.) 329."
And see State of Tennessee v. Hall, 164 Tenn. 548, 51 S.W.2d 851; State v. Knight, 34 N.M. 217, 279 P. 947; State v. Bennett, 315 Mo. 1267, 288 S.W. 50.
"Whoever directly commits any act constituting an offense defined in any law of the United States, or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces, or procures its commission, is a principal."
MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER, with whom MR. JUSTICE MURPHY concurs, dissenting.
In its surface aspects, this case concerns merely a squalid effort to evade the wartime system of gasoline rationing. But it should not be disposed of in that perspective. It is not the first petty little case to put to the test respect for principles which the founders of this nation deemed essential for a free society. For the case is directly related to one of the great chapters in the historic process whereby civil liberty was achieved and constitutionally protected against future inroads.
search and seizure of such documents without a warrant is not an unreasonable search and seizure condemned by the Fourth Amendment. To hold that the search in this case was legal is to hold that a search which could not be justified under a search warrant is lawful without it. I cannot escape the conviction that such a view of the Fourth Amendment makes a travesty of it, and of the long course of legislation in which Congress applied that Amendment.
Where search is made under the authority of a warrant issued from a judicial source, the scope of the search must be confined to the specific authorization of the warrant. It cannot be that the Constitution meant to make it legally advantageous not to have a warrant, so that the police may roam freely and have the courts retrospectively hold that the search that was made was "reasonable," reasonableness being judged from the point of view of obtaining relevant evidence. I had supposed that that was precisely what the Fourth Amendment was meant to stop.
"The government could desire its possession only to use it as evidence against the defendant and to search for and seize it for such purpose was unlawful."
Gouled v. United States, 255 U. S. 298, 255 U. S. 310.
other than that which they may serve as evidence in a case -- may be seized, but, like all other things in an individual's possession, they can be seized only upon a properly safeguarded search. The amenability of corporate papers to testimonial compulsion means that a corporation, because it is a corporation, cannot make claim to the privilege of self-crimination. Nor can the custodian of corporate books immunize them against their production in court because they may also carry testimony against him. The Fourth Amendment does not give freedom from testimonial compulsion. Subject to familiar qualifications, every man is under obligation to give testimony. But that obligation can be exacted only under judicial sanctions which are deemed precious to Anglo-American civilization. Merely because there may be the duty to make documents available for litigation does not mean that police officers may forcibly or fraudulently obtain them. This protection of the right to be let alone except under responsible judicial compulsion of precisely what the Fourth Amendment meant to express and to safeguard.
liberties was thus meant to be wiped out by a few words, without prior argument or consideration.
The course of decision in this Court has thus far jealously enforced the principle of a free society secured by the prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures. Its safeguards are not to be worn away by a process of devitalizing interpretation. The approval given today to what was done by arresting officers in this case indicates that we are in danger of forgetting that the Bill of Rights reflects experience with police excesses. It is not only under Nazi rule that police excesses are inimical to freedom. It is easy to make light of insistence on scrupulous regard for the safeguards of civil liberties when invoked on behalf of the unworthy. It is too easy. History bears testimony that by such disregard are the rights of liberty extinguished, heedlessly at first, then stealthily, and brazenly in the end.
was still proceeding, Davis drove into the station. His car was immediately searched, and he was charged with selling gas over ceiling prices and without coupons. These were charges of misdemeanors. The officers then demanded and received from Davis keys for the locked boxes on the pumps intended for the deposit of coupons received for gas sold. While some of the officers were engaged in checking the discrepancy between the amount of gas in storage tanks and the coupons in the boxes, Davis was taken by two of the agents to on outer room in his office. They demanded from him gas coupons which he claimed to have in sufficient numbers to make up the deficiencies in the locked boxes. He stubbornly refused despite the insistence of one of the officers that "he would have to open that door" to his private office. Finally, when another officer flashed a light into the office from an outside window and evinced an intention to force the window, Davis unlocked the door. Thereupon, he took some envelopes from a filing cabinet and handed them to the agents. These envelopes contained the stamps which formed the basis of the prosecution. He was then taken to OPA headquarters and questioned, but eventually allowed to go. Several weeks later, he was taken into custody and then charged with the illegal possession of gasoline ration documents. This charge also is a misdemeanor.
"The judge found that Davis' consent was 'voluntarily' given, and for that reason denied the motion to suppress the evidence. We need not decide that that finding is wrong, for we can dispose of the case upon other grounds; but we must own to some doubt whether a consent obtained under such circumstances should properly be regarded as 'voluntary.' Davis must have known, under arrest as he was, that the officers were not likely to stand very long upon ceremony, but, in one way or another, would enter the office."
to the premises in order to make a search there was, as a matter of law, "implied coercion." Inasmuch "as conduct under duress involves a choice," the Fourth Amendment is hardly to be nullified by finding every submission short of overpowering force "voluntary." See Union Pac. R. Co. v. Public Serv. Comm'n, 248 U. S. 67, 248 U. S. 70.
defendant of his usual privilege to be free of unreasonable search and seizure."
Of course, there is an important difference in the constitutional protection afforded their possessors between papers exclusively private and documents having public aspects. Cf. Weeks v. United States, 232 U. S. 383, 232 U. S. 393-394; Gouled v. United States, 255 U. S. 298, 255 U. S. 308-309. But the essence of the difference is that, under appropriate circumstances, wholly private papers are not even subject to testimonial compulsion, whereas other papers, once they have been legally obtained, are available as evidence. Had the coupons in controversy been secured by a proper search, they could be used against the defendant at the trial. But their character does not eliminate the restrictions of the Fourth Amendment and subject the person in possession of such documents, against his protest, to searches and seizures otherwise unwarranted.
between big and small enterprise. But, in any event, while our economy is extensively carried on through the corporate form, the latest available figures show that, of the multitudinous income-reporting corporations, only about five percent have a net income above $100,000. It cannot be that the highly prized Constitutional immunity from police intrusion, as it affects activities that permeate our national life, is now to be curtailed or viewed with laxity.
The Court's opinion has only its own reasoning to support it. Nothing that this Court has ever decided or sanctioned gives it strength. Wilson v. United States, 221 U. S. 361, invoked by the Court, was a very different story. That case was concerned with the difference between the amenability of a corporation to testimonial compulsion and the immunity of an individual, under relevant circumstances, to be free from the duty to give testimony. The core of the Government's claim here is the right to seize documents in the absence of judicial process. The difference between demanding documents without legal process and seizing them on the basis of such process is the difference between the protection of civil liberties and their invasion. The difference is the essence of the Fourth Amendment.
"American independence was then and there born; the seeds of patriots and heroes were then and there sown, to defend the rigorous youth, the non sine Diis animosus infans. Every man of a crowded audience appeared to me to go away, as I did, ready to take arms against writs of assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child Independence was born. In fifteen years, namely, in 1776, he grew up to manhood, and declared himself free."
10 Adams, Works, 247-248; for a description of Otis' speech in Paxton's Case, see 2 id. 523. So basic to liberty is the protection against governmental search and seizure that every State in the Union [Footnote 2/3] has this as a constitutional safeguard.
"With the fresh recollection of those stirring discussions [respecting writs of assistance], and of the revolution which followed them, the article in the Bill of Rights, respecting searches and seizures was framed and adopted. This article does not prohibit all searches and seizures of a man's person, papers, and possessions, but such only as are 'unreasonable,' and the foundation of which is 'not previously supported by oath or affirmation.' The legislature were not deprived of the power to authorize search warrants for probable causes, supported by oath or affirmation, and for the punishment or suppression of any violation of law. The law, therefore, authorizing search warrants in certain cases is in no respect inconsistent with the declaration of rights."
Commonwealth v. Dana, 2 Metc. (Mass.) 329, 336.
authorization whenever it wished to permit searches and seizures. Beginning with the first Congress down to 1917, Congress authorized search by warrant not as a generally available resource in aid of criminal prosecution, but in the most restricted way, observing with a jealous eye the recurrence of evils with which our early statesmen were intimately familiar. For each concrete situation, Congress deemed it necessary to pass a separate act. An incomplete examination finds scores of such ad hoc enactments scattered through the Statutes at Large. Not until 1917, and then only after repeated demands by the Attorney General, did Congress pass the present statute authorizing the issue of search warrants for generalized situations. 40 Stat. 217, 228, 18 U.S.C. § 611 et seq. Even then, the situations were restricted, and the scope of the authority was strictly defined. In the case before us, no attempt was made to get a search warrant because none could have been got. Congress did not authorize one either on the charges on which Davis was originally arrested or on which he was ultimately tried. And even since the 1917 Act, Congress has emphasized the importance of basing the compulsory demand for evidence upon judicial process, rather than the zeal of arresting officers. The habit of continual watchfulness against the dangers of police abuses has been reflected in that Congress has continued to authorize search warrants for particular situations by specific legislation or by reference to the 1917 Act. These revealing enactments are summarized in an Appendix.
In the course of its decisions, with a deviation promptly retraced, this Court has likewise reflected the broad purpose of the Fourth Amendment. The historic reach of the Amendment and the duty to observe it was expounded for the Court by Mr. Justice Bradley in Boyd v. United States, 116 U. S. 616, "a case that will be remembered as long as civil liberty lives in the United States."
Brandeis, J., in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U. S. 438, 277 U. S. 471, at 277 U. S. 474. The Amendment has not been read in a niggardly spirit, or with the outlook of a narrow-minded lawyer.
"Time and again, this Court, in giving effect to the principle underlying the Fourth Amendment, has refused to place an unduly literal construction upon it. This was notably illustrated in the Boyd case itself. Taking language in its ordinary meaning, there is no 'search' or 'seizure' when a defendant is required to produce a document in the orderly process of a court's procedure. 'The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures' would not be violated, under any ordinary construction of language, by compelling obedience to a subpoena. But this court holds the evidence inadmissible simply because the information leading to the issue of the subpoena has been unlawfully secured. Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U. S. 385. Literally, there is no 'search' or 'seizure' when a friendly visitor abstracts papers from an office; yet we held in Gouled v. United States, 255 U. S. 298, that evidence so obtained could not be used. No court which looked at the words of the amendment, rather than at its underlying purpose, would hold, as this Court did in Ex parte Jackson, 96 U. S. 727, 96 U. S. 733, that its protection extended to letters in the mails. The provision against self-incrimination in the Fifth Amendment has been given an equally broad construction.
The language is: 'No person . . . shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.' Yet we have held not only that the protection of the amendment extends to a witness before a grand jury, although he has not been charged with crime (Counselman v. Hitchcock, 142 U. S. 547, 142 U. S. 562, 142 U. S. 586), but that:"
"It applies alike to civil and criminal proceedings, wherever the answer might tend to subject to criminal responsibility him who gives it. The privilege protects a mere witness as fully as it does one who is also a party defendant."
"to insure that a person should not be compelled, when acting as a witness in any investigation, to give testimony which might tend to show that he himself had committed a crime. The privilege is limited to criminal matters, but it is as broad as the mischief against which it seeks to guard."
"Counselman v. Hitchcock, supra, p. 142 U. S. 562."
a violation of the Fifth Amendment."
Olmstead v. United States, 277 U. S. 438, 277 U. S. 471, at 277 U. S. 476-478.
And so we are finally brought to the question whether the seizure of documents which could not possibly have been justified as the result of a search under a warrant, since no such warrant could have been authorized by law, can be justified as a search and seizure without a warrant. Such justification must have some historic foundation, otherwise it is clearly out of the bounds of the Fourth Amendment. The court below evidently struggled in reaching its conclusion because of some decisions here which it naturally found "not entirely harmonious." Its chief reliance was language in Marron v. United States, 275 U. S. 192. A short answer would be that the sting of the Marron case was taken by two later cases. Go-Bart Importing Co. v. United States, 282 U. S. 344, 282 U. S. 358, and United States v. Lefkowitz, 285 U. S. 452, 285 U. S. 465. But a closer analysis is called for.
arrest was early settled in our law. [Footnote 2/4] 1 Bishop, New Criminal Procedure, 4th Ed., 1895, §§ 210 et seq.
"judicial sanction of equivocal methods, which, regarded superficially, may seem to escape the challenge of illegality but which, in reality, strike at the substance of the constitutional right.
the arrest takes place. Another factor enters. This language is sometimes used in cases involving the seizure of items properly subject to seizure because in open view at the time of arrest. [Footnote 2/8] But this last confusion is due to a failure to distinguish between the appropriate scope of a search on arrest and the very different problem as to the right of seizure where no search is in question."
It is important to keep clear the distinction between prohibited searches, on the one hand, and improper seizures, on the other. See Mr. Justice Miller in Boyd v. United States, 116 U. S. 616, 116 U. S. 638, 116 U. S. 641. Thus, it is unconstitutional to seize a person's private papers, though the search in which they were recovered was perfectly proper, e.g., Gouled v. United States, 255 U. S. 298. It is unconstitutional to make an improper search even for articles that are appropriately subject to seizure, e.g., Amos v. United States, 255 U. S. 313; Byars v. United States, 273 U. S. 28; Taylor v. United States, 286 U. S. 1. And a search may be improper because of the object it seeks to uncover, e.g., Weeks v. United States, 232 U. S. 383, 232 U. S. 393-394, or because its scope extends beyond the constitutional bounds, e.g., Agnello v. United States, 269 U. S. 20.
lower courts. Thus, the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit felt that the Marron case required it to give a more restricted view to the prohibitions of the Fourth Amendment than that court had expounded in United States v. Kirschenblatt, infra, see Go-Bart Importing Co. v. United States, sub nom. United States v. Gowen, 40 F.2d 593, only to find itself reversed here, Go-Bart Importing Co. v. United States, supra, partly on the authority of the Kirschenblatt decision, which, after the Marron case, it thought it must disown. The uncritical application of the right of search on arrest in the Marron case has surely been displaced by Go-Bart Importing Co. v. United States, supra, and even more drastically by United States v. Lefkowitz, supra, unless one is to infer that an earlier case qualifies later decisions although these later decisions have explicitly confined the earlier case.
In view of the jealousy with which this Court has applied the protection of the Fourth Amendment even where the search purported to take place under a proper warrant and there was the safeguard of judicial process in addition to the expressed judgment of the enforcement officials, see e.g., Grau v. United States, 287 U. S. 124; Sgro v. United States, 287 U. S. 206, it was not to be expected that this Court should sanction searches on arrest that can be justified as reasonable only if securing evidence for purposes of the trial is the test of reasonableness for purposes of the Fourth Amendment. Such a view presupposes that the Fourth Amendment is absolute, and makes of the particularity of requirement for search warrants a mocking redundancy.
that term is properly used. The exceptional right to search on arrest does not, in any event, extend to a search for articles necessary to the commission of a crime other than that for which the arrest was made. The officers could not have made an arrest of Davis for illegal possession of coupons, for which he was later tried, on mere suspicion. That crime, like the others, was only a misdemeanor, and no arrest can be made for a misdemeanor without a warrant unless it be committed in the presence of officers. Prior to the search, the officers had no basis for stating that he was committing the crime of illegal possession of the coupons in their presence.
Judge Learned Hand said on another occasion.
"We are told that unless such evidence will serve, it will be impossible to suppress an evil of large proportion in the residential part of Brooklyn. Perhaps so; any community must choose between the impairment of its power to punish crime and such evils as arise from its uncontrolled prosecution. But the danger is not certain, for the officer could have applied for a warrant which -- as was at least intimated in Taylor v. United States -- might then have been valid. It takes time to break up a still and take the parts away; if the attempt were made, it would discover itself immediately. One or more officers could have watched, while the others went to a judge or commissioner, whose action would at least have put a different face upon their subsequent proceeding."
United States v. Kaplan, 89 F.2d 869, 871.
"Such constitutional limitations arise from grievances, real or fancied, which their makers have suffered, and should go pari passu with the supposed evil. They withstand the winds of logic by the depth and toughness of their roots in the past. Nor should we forget that what seems fair enough against a squalid huckster of bad liquor may take on a very different face, if used by a government determined to suppress political opposition under the guise of sedition."
Learned Hand, J. in United States v. Kirschenblatt, 16 F.2d 202, 203.
The petitioner was arrested for the sale of gasoline without coupons and at a price greater than that authorized by the Office of Price Administration ceilings; he was prosecuted for the illegal possession of gasoline ration documents. These offenses are misdemeanors. 56 Stat. 176, 179, 50 U.S.C.App. § 633(5).
The Espionage Act limits the issuance of search warrants to those in which the property sought was stolen or embezzled, used as a means of committing a felony, or used to aid illegally a foreign nation. 40 Stat. 217, 228, 18 U.S.C. § 612. The documents involved in this case do not come within any of these categories.
A few words only need be said about the cases on which the Government relies. Most of them deal with the amenability of documents to production upon legal process. Wilson v. United States, 221 U. S. 361; Bowles v. Insel, 148 F.2d 91; Cudmore v. Bowles, 79 U.S.App.D.C. 255, 145 F.2d 697; Rodgers v. United States, 138 F.2d 992; Fleming v. Montgomery Ward & Co., 114 F.2d 384. In the others, consent was given to inspect the papers in accordance with the provisions of the governing statute. Bowles v. Beatrice Creamery Co., 146 F.2d 774; Bowles v. Glick Bros. Lumber Co., 146 F.2d 566; In re Sana Laboratories, 115 F.2d 717 (subsequent to the inspection, there was a wrongful taking; the court admitted the evidence procured as a result of the inspection, but barred the documents from evidence); C. M. Spring Drug Co. v. United States, 12 F.2d 852; United States v. Kempe, 59 F.Supp. 905; Bowles v. Stitzinger, 59 F.Supp. 94; Bowles v. Curtiss Candy Co., 55 F.Supp. 527; United States v. Sherry, 294 F. 684 (here, the documents were taken with the consent of the custodian). In A. Guckenheimer & Bros. Co. v. United States, 3 F.2d 786, however, the situation bears some resemblance to the present case. There, the Circuit Court of Appeals attributed the consent of the custodian, following continual refusal, to the command of the statute. While there was no indication, as evidenced by the opinion, that the documents were secured through fear of force, the inspection afforded was probably not voluntary. Insofar as there is support in that case for a search that transgressed the Fourth Amendment, the observations are mere dicta, since no timely objection was filed.
This historic safeguard against unreasonable search and seizure was given formal constitutional sanction in New York in 1938. N.Y.Const. of 1938, Art. 1, § 12.
"The law does not allow an arrest in vacuo, or without reason assigned, and the reason assigned must be that the arrest is for the purpose of prosecution on the self-same charge as it the justification for the arrest. It follows, and it is a principle lying at the very roots of English freedom, that if a man is arrested on one charge, he is entitled to his release the moment prosecution of that charge is abandoned. The prosecution cannot arrest on one charge, abandon their intention to proceed on that charge, and then keep him in cold storage, still nominally on that charge, while they inquire into the possibility of putting forward a different charge. To do that, they must first release him; then, when they propose to put forward some other charge, they can make the new charge the occasion for a new arrest."
"An accused person has the right to know what the charge is against him so that, if he elects to speak he may have a fair and open chance of clearing himself at the earliest possible moment."
62 L.Q.Rev. at 4. It is to be noted that Carroll v. United States, 267 U. S. 132, 267 U. S. 157, assumes the federal law of arrest to be the same as that of the English.
E.g., United States v. Wilson, 163 F. 338, 340; United States v. Murphy, 264 F. 842, 844; United States v. Snyder, 278 F. 650, 658; Maynard v. United States, 57 App.D.C. 314, 23 F.2d 141, 144; cf. United States v. Welsh, 247 F. 239; Laughter v. United States, 259 F. 94; Donegan v. United States, 287 F. 641; Winkler v. United States, 297 F. 202.
E.g., Green v. United States, 289 F. 236, 238; Browne v. United States, 290 F. 870, 875; Garske v. United States, 1 F.2d 620; Kwong How v. United States, 71 F.2d 71.
E.g., Swan v. United States, 54 App.D.C. 100, 295 F. 921; Sayers v. United States, 2 F.2d 146; United States v. Poller, 43 F.2d 911; United States v. 71.41 Ounces Gold Filled Scrap, 94 F.2d 17; United States v. Feldman, 104 F.2d 255; Matthews v. Correa, 135 F.2d 534; United States v. Lindenfeld, 142 F.2d 829.
E.g., Laney v. United States, 54 App.D.C. 56, 294 F. 412, 416; United States v. Chin On, 297 F. 531, 533; United States v. Seltzer, 5 F.2d 364; Mattus v. United States, 11 F.2d 503; Cheng Wai v. United States, 125 F.2d 915; cf. United States v. Borkowski, 268 F. 408; In re Mobile, 278 F. 949; O'Connor v. United States, 281 F. 396; Vachina v. United States, 283 F. 35; Furlong v. United States, 10 F.2d 492; United States v. Fischer, 38 F.2d 830.
The petitioner's gas station was under suspicion for some weeks, yet action was finally taken as described in this opinion. Petitioner was arrested when he arrived at the gas station for sales above ceiling prices and sales without coupons. No arraignment was made for these offenses -- instead, the officers engaged in a search of the premises, which included the essentially forced entry into the petitioner's office. He was then taken to the local OPA headquarters. After several hours of questioning at OPA headquarters, Davis was released. Not until one month later was the petitioner rearrested and arraigned, and then on a charge entirely different from those on which the original arrest was made. The Emergency Price Control Act, 56 Stat. 23, 50 U.S.C.App. § 901 et seq., made adequate provision for effective enforcement of the statute. So far as securing documents and papers are concerned, the Administrator is equipped with the subpoena power, § 202(c), (d), (e); in addition, the Administrator has the power to seek injunction against the acts which the petitioner was accused of committing, § 205(a); and by appropriate proceedings the Administrator may seek the withdrawal of the license which the petitioner required to operate his business, § 205(f).
A. Place to be searched.
on scope); Act of June 15, 1935, 49 Stat. 378, 381 (no limitation on scope); Act of August 27, 1935, 49 Stat. 872, 874, 875 (see Act of June 15, 1917, supra); Act of April 5, 1938, 52 Stat. 198, 199 (any place in District of Columbia); Act of February 10, 1939, 53 Stat. 1, 436 (no limitation on scope); Act of June 28, 1940, 54 Stat. 670, 671 (no limitation on scope); Act of July 1, 1943, 57 Stat. 301, 304 (no limitation on scope); Act of February 26, 1944, 58 Stat. 100, 102 (any person, vessel, or place).
B. Objects of Search and Seizure.
obscene and immoral literature and materials); Act of February 10, 1939, 53 Stat. 1, 436 (frauds on the revenue); Act of June 28, 1940, 54 Stat. 670, 671 (subversive materials); Act of July 1, 1943, 57 Stat. 301, 304 (Alaskan game illegally taken and equipment used to make captures); Act of February 26, 1944, 58 Stat. 100, 102 (illegally taken seal products and equipment used to aid in the takings).
C. Requirements for issuance of warrant.
fraud on revenue committed or being committed); Act of June 28, 1940, 54 Stat. 670, 671 (see Act of June 15, 1917, supra); Act of July 1, 1943, 57 Stat. 301, 304 (proper oath or affirmation, showing probable cause of violation of Alaskan game laws, before U.S. judge or commissioner); Act of February 26, 1944, 58 Stat. 100, 102 (oath or affirmation before U.S. judge or commissioner, showing probable cause of violation of statute).
* Congress has passed numerous statutes authorizing inspection of defined premises and seizures without warrants. These are all very particularized acts, relating mostly to the inspection of vessels and vehicles and the seizure of various types of contraband goods. Most of this legislation comes within the exceptions historically recognized at the time of the adoption of the Fourth Amendment as to recapture of stolen goods and search of vehicles and vessels because of their fugitive nature. In such a mass of legislation, it would not be surprising if some of the specific acts fell afoul of the considerations which invalidated the legislation in the Boyd case, 116 U. S. 616. What is significant about this legislation is the recognition by Congress of the necessity for specific Congressional authorization even for the search of vessels and other moving vehicles and the seizures of goods technically contraband.
I am substantially in accord with the views expressed by MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER in his exhaustive opinion as to the controlling principles which should govern in the disposition of this case. Perhaps it should be added that the evidence does not clearly show that the officer who flashed the light into the window was in fact attempting to open it by force or to do more than observe the interior. But the situation was such that his action clearly created in Davis' mind the impression that he either was entering by force or intended to do so. It therefore must be taken, I think, that Davis' so-called consent was induced by this apparent compulsion, the very kind of thing the Fourth Amendment was designed to prevent. There was no such consent as would legalize the entry and search.
Moreover, whatever may be the scope of search incident to lawful arrest for a misdemeanor, I know of no decision which goes so far as to rule that this right of search extends to breaking and entering locked premises by force. That was not done here. But the search followed on consent given in the reasonable belief that it was necessary to avoid the breaking and entry. I think it was therefore in no better case legally than if in fact the breaking and forcible entry had occurred. The search was justified neither by consent nor by the doctrine of reasonable search as incident to a lawful arrest.

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