Source: https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/501-u-s-429-605144362
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 00:57:28+00:00

Document:
Party Name: FLORIDA, Petitioner, v. Terrance BOSTICK.
Question was certified by the District Court of Appeal, 510 So.2d 321, on appeal from the Circuit Court, Broward County, Russell E. Seay, Jr., J., as to whether police, without articulable suspicion, could board bus and ask at random for and receive consent to search passenger's luggage when they advised passenger that he had right to refuse consent to search. After rephrasing question, the Florida Supreme Court, 554 So.2d 1153, answered question in negative. On petition for writ of certiorari, the Supreme Court, Justice O'Connor, held that random bus searches conducted pursuant to passenger's consent are not per se unconstitutional.
Justice Marshall dissented and filed opinion, in which Justices Blackmun and Stevens joined.
1. The Florida Supreme Court erred in adopting a per se rule that every encounter on a bus is a seizure. The appropriate test is whether, taking into account all of the circumstances surrounding the encounter, a reasonable passenger would feel free to decline the officers' requests or otherwise terminate the encounter. Pp. 2385-2388.
(a) A consensual encounter does not trigger Fourth Amendment scrutiny. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19, n. 16, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879, n. 16, 20 L.Ed.2d 889. Even when officers have no basis for suspecting a particular individual, they may generally ask the individual questions, Florida v. Rodriguez, 469 U.S. 1, 5-6, 105 S.Ct. 308, 310-311, 83 L.Ed.2d 165, ask to examine identification, INS v. Delgado, 466 U.S. 210, 216, 104 S.Ct. 1758, 1762-1763, 80 L.Ed.2d 247, and request consent to search luggage, Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 501, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 1326, 75 L.Ed.2d 229, provided they do not convey a message that compliance with their requests is required. Thus, there is no doubt that if this same encounter had taken place before Bostick boarded the bus or in the bus terminal, it would not be a seizure. P. 2386.
even if there were no police present. The more appropriate inquiry is whether a reasonable passenger would feel free to decline the officers' request or otherwise terminate the encounter. Thus, this case is analytically indistinguishable from INS v. Delgado, supra. There, no seizure occurred when INS agents visited factories at random, stationing some agents at exits while others questioned workers, because, even though workers were not free to leave without being questioned, the agents' conduct gave them no reason to believe that they would be detained if they answered truthfully or refused to answer. Such a refusal, alone, does not furnish the minimal level of objective justification needed for detention or seizure. Id., at 216-217, 104 S.Ct. at 1762-1763. Pp. 2386-2388.
2. This case is remanded for the Florida courts to evaluate the seizure question under the correct legal standard. The trial court made no express findings of fact, and the State Supreme Court rested its decision on a single fact--that the encounter took place on a bus--rather than on the totality of the circumstances. Rejected, however, is Bostick's argument that he must have been seized because no reasonable person would freely consent to a search of luggage containing drugs, since the "reasonable person" test presumes aninnocent person. Pp. 2388-2389.
554 So.2d 1153 (Fla.1989), reversed and remanded.
O'CONNOR, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST, C.J., and WHITE, SCALIA, KENNEDY, and SOUTER, JJ., joined. MARSHALL, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which BLACKMUN and STEVENS, JJ., joined, post, p. 2389.
*Mary Irene Coombs, Steven R. Shapiro, John A. Powell, James K. Green, Jeffrey S. Weiner, and Robert G. Amsel filed a brief for the American Civil Liberties Union et al. as amici curiae urging affirmance.
Fred E. Inbau, Wayne W. Schmidt, Bernard J. Farber, and James P. Manak filed a brief for Americans for Effective Law Enforcement as amicus curiae.
Joan Fowler, West Palm Beach, for the petitioner.
Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr, Washington, D.C., for the United States as amicus curiae, in support of the petitioner by special leave of Court.
Donald B. Ayer, Washington, D.C., for the respondent.
lookout for illegal drugs. In pursuit of that aim, they then requested the defendant's consent to search his luggage. Needless to say, there is a conflict in the evidence about whether the defendant consented to the search of the second bag in which the contraband was found and as to whether he was informed of his right to refuse consent. However, any conflict must be resolved in favor of the state, it being a question of fact decided by the trial judge.' " 554 So.2d 1153, 1154-1155 (1989), quoting 510 So.2d 321, 322 (Fla.App.1987) (Letts, J., dissenting in part).

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