Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/508/77/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 13:56:48+00:00

Document:
Police arrested Luis Arciniega, after finding cocaine in a car he drove, and subsequently arrested respondents, Donald Simpson-the car's ownerhis wife, and Xavier, Maria, and Jorge Padilla, charging them with, inter alia, conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine. Respondents moved to suppress the evidence discovered during the investigation, claiming that it was the fruit of an unlawful investigatory stop of the car. The District Court ruled that all respondents were entitled to challenge the stop and search because they were involved in a joint venture for transportation that had control of the contraband, reasoning that the Simpsons retained a reasonable expectation of privacy in the car, and that the Padillas had supervisory roles and joint control over the operation. It concluded that the police did not have reasonable suspicion to make the stop and thus the evidence should be suppressed. Applying its rule that a co-conspirator's participation in an operation or arrangement that indicates joint control and supervision of the place searched establishes standing to challenge the search, the Court of Appeals affirmed as to the Simpsons and Xavier Padilla, and remanded for further findings whether Jorge and Maria Padilla shared any responsibility for the enterprise.
Held: The Court of Appeals' rule squarely contradicts this Court's rule that a defendant can urge the suppression of evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment only if that defendant demonstrates that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the challenged search or seizure. See, e. g., Alderman v. United States, 394 U. S. 164, 171-172. Expectations of privacy and property interests govern the analysis of Fourth Amendment search and seizure claims. Participants in a criminal conspiracy may have such expectations or interests, but the conspiracy itself neither adds nor detracts from them. On remand, the court must consider whether each respondent had either a property interest that was interfered with by the stop of the car or a reasonable expectation of privacy that was invaded by the search thereof.
General Starr, Assistant Attorney General Mueller, and Joel M. Gershowitz.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has adopted what it terms a "coconspirator exception" to the rule regarding who may challenge the constitutionality of a search or seizure. Under its reasoning, a co-conspirator obtains a legitimate expectation of privacy for Fourth Amendment purposes if he has either a supervisory role in the conspiracy or joint control over the place or property involved in the search or seizure. This "exception," apparently developed in a series of earlier decisions of the Court of Appeals, squarely contradicts the controlling case from this Court. We therefore reject it.
*John Wesley Hall, Jr., filed a brief for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers as amicus curiae urging affirmance.
niega's permission to search the vehicle. The officers found 560 pounds of cocaine in the trunk and immediately arrested Arciniega.
1 A related investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) revealed that Warren Strubbe was also involved in the conspiracy. Although Strubbe technically is a respondent in this case, see this Court's Rule 12.4, the Court of Appeals found that he could not challenge the stop and search of the Cadillac. Strubbe did not file a petition challenging that decision, and we therefore do not address that aspect of the court's opinion.
contest the stop solely because of their supervisory roles and their "joint control over a very sophisticated operation .... " Id., at 23a. On the merits, the District Court ruled that Officer Fifer lacked reasonable suspicion to stop Arciniega,2 and granted respondents' motion to suppress.
The Court of Appeals affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded. The court began its analysis by stating that in order "[t]o contest the legality of a search and seizure, the defendants must establish that they had a 'legitimate expectation of privacy' in the place searched or the property seized." 960 F.2d 854, 858-859 (CA9 1992) (quoting Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U. S. 128, 143-144 (1978)). The court then recited its co-conspirator rule: "[A] coconspirator's participation in an operation or arrangement that indicates joint control and supervision of the place searched establishes standing." 960 F. 2d, at 859 (citations omitted).
2 The Government did not challenge this finding on appeal and does not do so here.
stantial control and oversight with respect to the purchase [and] the transportation through Arizona." Ibid. The court expressly stated that it did not matter that Padilla was not present during the stop, or that he could not exclude others from searching the Cadillac. Ibid.
3 The First, Second, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Eleventh, and District of Columbia Circuits have declined to adopt an exception for co-conspirators or codefendants. See United States v. Soule, 908 F.2d 1032, 1036-1037 (CA1 1990); United States v. Galante, 547 F.2d 733, 739-740 (CA2 1976), cert. denied, 431 U. S. 969 (1977); United States v. Hunter, 550 F.2d 1066, 1074 (CA6 1977); United States v. DeLeon, 641 F.2d 330, 337 (CA5 1981); United States v. Kiser, 948 F.2d 418, 424 (CA8 1991), cert. denied, 503 U. S. 983 (1992); United States v. Brown, 743 F.2d 1505, 1507-1508 (CAll 1984); United States v. Davis, 199 U. S. App. D. C. 95, 108, 617 F.2d 677, 690 (1979).
by the search itself, not by those who are aggrieved solely by the introduction of damaging evidence. Coconspirators and codefendants have been accorded no special standing." 394 U. S., at 171-172.
In Rakas, supra, a police search of a car yielded a box of rifle shells found in the glove compartment and a sawed-off rifle found under the passenger seat. We held that petitioners, who were passengers in the car and had no ownership interest in the rifle shells or sawed-off rifle, and no legitimate expectation of privacy in the area searched, had suffered no invasion of their Fourth Amendment rights. See also Rawlings, supra; Soldal v. Cook County, 506 U. S. 56, 62-64 (1992) (decided since the Court of Appeals rendered its decision in the present case).

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.