Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/422/531
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 18:16:02+00:00

Document:
This Court's decision in Almeida-Sanchez v. United States, 413 U.S. 266, 93 S.Ct. 2535, 37 L.Ed.2d 596, which held that a warrantless automobile search, conducted about 25 air miles from the Mexican border by Border Patrol Agents acting without probable cause, contravened the Fourth Amendment, does not apply to Border Patrol searches like the one in this case, which, though concededly unconstitutional under Almeida-Sanchez standards, was conducted prior to June 21, 1973, the date of that decision. The policies underlying the exclusionary rule do not require retroactive application of Almeida-Sanchez where, as here, the agents were acting in reliance upon a federal statute supported by longstanding administrative regulations and continuous judicial approval. Pp. 535-542.
(9th Cir.) 500 F.2d 985, reversed.
William L. Patton, for petitioner.
Sandor W. Shapery, La Jolla, Cal., for respondent.
Four months before this Court's decision in Almeida-Sanchez v. United States, 413 U.S. 266, 93 S.Ct. 2535, 37 L.Ed.2d 596 (1973), respondent was stopped in his automobile by a roving border patrol, and three plastic garbage bags containing 270 pounds of marihuana were found in the trunk of his car by Border Patrol Agents. On the basis of this evidence an indictment was returned charging him with a violation of 84, Stat. 1260, 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1). When respondent's motion to suppress the evidence was denied after a hearing, he stipulated in writing that he 'did knowingly and intentionally possess, with intent to distribute, the marijuana concealed in the 1962 Chevrolet which he was driving on February 28, 1973.' 1 The District Court found respondent guilty and imposed sentence. On appeal from that judgment, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, reversed the judgment on the ground that the 'rule announced by the Supreme Court in Almeida-Sanchez v. United States . . . should be applied to similar cases pending on appeal on the date the Supreme Court's decision was announced.' 500 F.2d 985, 986 (1974) (footnote omitted). 2 We granted the Government's petition for certiorari. 419 U.S. 993, 95 S.Ct. 302, 42 L.Ed.2d 265 (1974).
'(Respondent) is entitled to the benefit of the rule announced in Almeida-Sanchez, not because of retroactivity but because of Fourth Amendment principles never deviated from by the Supreme Court.' Id., at 989.
The judgment of conviction was reversed, and the case was remanded to the District Court to suppress the evidence seized from respondent's automobile.
Although expressing some doubt about the applicability of the old law-new law test as a precondition to retroactivity analysis, id., at 990, the six dissenters joined issue with the majority over the proper interpretation of Almeida-Sanchez. The dissenters concluded that Almeida-Sanchez had announced a new constitutional rule because the decision overruled a consistent line of Courts of Appeals precedent and disrupted a long accepted and widely relied upon administrative practice. Border Patrol agents had conducted roving searches pursuant to congressional authorization, 66 Stat. 233, 8 U.S.C. 1357(a)(3), and administrative regulation, 8 CFR § 287.1(a)(2) (1973), which had been continuously upheld until this Court's decision in Almeida-Sanchez. Since Almeida-Sanchez stated a new rule, the dissenters concluded that the applicability of that decision to pre-June 21, 1973, roving patrol vehicle searches should be determined by reference to the standards summarized in Stovall v. Denno, supra. 4 For the reasons expressed in Part II of Judge Wallace's opinion in United States v. Bowen, 500 F.2d 960, 975981 (CA9), cert. granted, 419 U.S. 824, 95 S.Ct. 40, 42 L.Ed.2d 47 (1974), the dissenters concluded that Almeida-Sanchez should be accorded prospective application.
Despite the conceded illegality of the search under the Almeida-Sanchez standard, the Government contends that the exclusionary rule should not be mechanically applied in the case now before us because the policies underlying the rule do not justify its retroactive application to pre-Almeida-Sanchez searches. We agree.
* Since 1965 this Court has repeatedly struggled with the question of whether rulings in criminal cases should be given retroactive effect. In those cases '(w)here the major purpose of new constitutional doctrine is to overcome an aspect of the criminal trial that substantially impairs its truth-finding function and so raises serious questions about the accuracy of guilty verdicts in past trials,' Williams v. United States, 401 U.S. 646, 653, 91 S.Ct. 1148, 1152, 28 L.Ed.2d 388 (1971), the doctrine has quite often been applied retroactively. It is indisputable, however, that in every case in which the Court has addressed the retroactivity problem in the context of the exclusionary rule, whereby concededly relevant evidence is excluded in order to enforce a constitutional guarantee that does not relate to the integrity of the factfinding process, the Court has concluded that any such new constitutional principle would be accorded only prospective application. 5 Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965); Johnson v. New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 86 S.Ct. 1772, 16 L.Ed.2d 882 (1966); Stovall v. Denno, supra; Fuller v. Alaska, 393 U.S. 80, 89 S.Ct. 61, 21 L.Ed.2d 212 (1968); Desist v. United States 394 U.S. 244, 89 S.Ct. 1030, 22 L.Ed.2d 248 (1969); Jenkins v. Delaware, 395 U.S. 213, 89 S.Ct. 1677, 23 L.Ed.2d 253 (1969); Williams v. United States, supra; Hill v. California, 401 U.S. 797, 91 S.Ct. 1106, 28 L.Ed.2d 484 (1971).
We think that these cases tell us a great deal about the nature of the exclusionary rule, as well as something about the nature of retroactivity analysis. Decisions of this Court applying the exclusionary rule to unconstitutionally seized evidence have referred to 'the imperative of judicial integrity,' Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 222, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 1446, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669 (1960), although the Court has relied principally upon the deterrent purpose served by the exclusionary rule. See Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961); Lee v. Florida, 392 U.S. 378, 88 S.Ct. 2096, 20 L.Ed.2d 1166 (1968); See also United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 94 S.Ct. 613, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974); Michigan v. Tucker, 417 U.S. 433, 94 S.Ct. 2357, 41 L.Ed.2d 182 (1974). And see also Oaks, Studying the Exclusionary Rule in Search and Seizure, 37 U.Chi.L.Rev. 665, 668 672 (1970).
'(T)he decision we reach today is not based upon language and doctrinal symmetry alone. It is buttressed as well by the 'imperative of judicial integrity.' Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 222, (80 S.Ct. 1437, 1446, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669). Under our Constitution no court, state or federal, may serve as an accomplice in the willful transgression of 'the Laws of the United States,' laws by which 'the Judges in every State (are) bound . . .." 392 U.S., at 385386, 88 S.Ct. at 2101 (footnotes omitted).
'Retroactive application of Lee would overturn every state conviction obtained in good-faith reliance on Schwartz. Since this result is not required by the principle upon which Lee was decided, or necessary to accomplish its purpose, we hold that the exclusionary rule is to be applied only to trials in which the evidence is sought to be introduced after the date of our decision in Lee.' Fuller v. Alaska, supra, 393 U.S., at 81, 89 S.Ct. at 62.
The teaching of these retroactivity cases is that if the law enforcement officers reasonably believed in good faith that evidence they had seized was admissible at trial, the 'imperative of judicial integrity' is not offended by the introduction into evidence of that material even if decisions subsequent to the search or seizure have broadened the exclusionary rule to encompass evidence seized in that manner. It would seem to follow a fortiori from the Linkletter and Fuller holdings that the 'imperative of judicial integrity' is also not offended if law enforcement officials reasonably believed in good faith that their conduct was in accordance with the law even if decisions subsequent to the search or seizure have held that conduct of the type engaged in by the law enforcement officials is not permitted by the Constitution. For, although the police in Linkletter and Fuller could not have been expected to foresee the application of the exclusionary rule to state criminal trials, they could reasonably have entertained no similar doubts as to the illegality of their conduct. See Wolf v. Colorado, 338 U.S., at 27, 69 S.Ct. at 1361; § 605 of the Federal Communications Act of 1934; cf. Nardone v. United States, 302 U.S. 379, 58 S.Ct. 275, 82 L.Ed. 314 (1937).
This approach to the 'imperative of judicial integrity' does not differ markedly from the analysis the Court has utilized in determining whether the deterrence rationale undergirding the exclusionary rule would be furthered by retroactive application of new constitutional doctrines. See Linkletter v. Walker, supra, 381 U.S., at 636637, 85 S.Ct., at 17411742; Fuller v. Alaska, supra, 393 U.S., at 81, 89 S.Ct., at 62; Desist v. United States, supra, 394 U.S., at 249251, 89 S.Ct., at 10331035. In Desist, the Court explicitly recognized the interrelation between retroactivity rulings and the exclusionary rule: '(W)e simply decline to extend the court-made exclusionary rule to cases in which its deterrent purpose would not be served.' 394 U.S., at 254 n. 24, 89 S.Ct., at 1036.
The 'reliability and relevancy,' Linkletter, supra, 381 U.S., at 639, 85 S.Ct. at 1743, of the evidence found in the trunk of respondent's car is unquestioned. It was sufficiently damning on the issue of respondent's guilt or innocence that he stipulated in writing that in effect he had committed the offense charged. Whether or not the exclusionary rule should be applied to the roving border patrol search conducted in this case, then, depends on whether considerations of either judicial integrity or deterrence of Fourth Amendment violations are sufficiently weighty to require that the evidence obtained by the Border Patrol in this case be excluded.
The Border Patrol agents who stopped and searched respondent's automobile were acting pursuant to § 287(a)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, 66 Stat. 233, 8 U.S.C. 1357(a)(3). 6 That provision, which carried forward statutory authorization dating back to 1946, 60 Stat. 865, 8 U.S.C. 110 (1946 ed.), 7 authorizes appropriately designated Immigration and Naturalization officers to search vehicles 'within a reasonable distance from any external boundary of the United States' without a warrant. Pursuant to this statutory authorization, regulations were promulgated fixing the 'reasonable distance,' as specified in § 287(a)(3), at '100 air miles from any external boundary of the United States,' 22 Fed.Reg. 9808 (1957), as amended, 29 Fed.Reg. 13244 (1964), 8 CFR § 287.1(a)(2) (1973).
'Roving automobile searches in border regions for aliens . . . have been consistently approved by the judiciary. While the question is one of first impression in this Court, such searches uniformly have been sustained by the courts of appeals whose jurisdictions include those areas of the border between Mexico and the United States where the problem has been most severe.' 413 U.S., at 278, 93 S.Ct., at 2542.
Mr. Justice STEWART dissents from the opinion and judgment of the Court for the reasons set out in Part I of the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice BRENNAN, post, at 544549.
I agree with my Brother BRENNAN that Almeida-Sanchez v. United States, 413 U.S. 266, 93 S.Ct. 2535, 37 L.Ed.2d 596 (1973), reaffirmed of traditional Fourth Amendment principles and that the purposes of the exclusionary rule compel exclusion of the unconstitutionally seized evidence in this case. I adhere to my view that a constitutional rule made retroactive in one case must be applied retroactively in all. See my dissent in Daniel v. Louisiana, 420 U.S. 31, 95 S.Ct. 704, 42 L.Ed.2d 790 (1975), and cases cited. It is largely a matter of chance that we held the Border Patrol to the command of the Fourth Amendment in Almeida-Sanchez rather than in the case of this defendant. Equal justice does not permit a defendant's fate to depend upon such a fortuity. The judgment below should be affirmed.
* Until today the question of the prospective application of a decision of this Court was not deemed to be presented unless the decision 'constitute(d) a sharp break in the line of earlier authority or an avulsive change which caused the current of the law thereafter to flow between new banks.' Hanover Shoe, Inc. v. United Shoe Machinery Corp., 392 U.S. 481, 499, 88 S.Ct. 2224, 2234, 20 L.Ed.2d 1231 (1968). 1 Measured by that test, our decision in Almerida-Sanchez v. United States, 413 U.S. 266, 93 S.Ct. 2535, 37 L.Ed.2d 596 (1973), presents no question of prospectivity, and the Court errs in even addressing the question. For both the Court's opinion and the concurring opinion of Mr. Justice Powell in Almeida-Sanchez plainly applied familiar principles of constitutional adjudication announced 50 years ago in Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 153154, 45 S.Ct. 280, 285, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925), and merely construed 66 Stat. 233, 8 U.S.C. 1357(a)(3), so as to render it constitutionally consistent with that decision. 413 U.S., at 272; id., at 275, and n. 1, 93 S.Ct. 2539, at 2541 (Powell, J., concurring).
Second, the Court states that '(b)etween 1952 and Almeida-Sanchez, roving Border Patrol searches under § 287(a)(3) were upheld repeatedly against constitutional attack.' Ante, at 2319. But the first decision of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit squarely in point, United States v. Miranda, 426 F.2d 283, was decided in 1970, and the second, United States v. AlmeidaSanchez, 452 F.2d 459, was decided over strong dissent in 1971 and was pending on certiorari in this Court when Peltier was searched. 406 U.S. 944, 92 S.Ct. 2050, 32 L.Ed.2d 331 (1972). The first decision of the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit approving alien searches by roving patrols without either probable cause or any suspicious conduct was in 1969. Roa-Rodriquez v. United States (10th Cir.), 410 F.2d 1206. And the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, unlike the Ninth and Tenth Circuits, always required at least a 'reasonable suspicion' that a car might contain aliens as the basis of a valid search under 8 U.S.C. 1357(a)(3). United States v. Wright, 476 F.2d 1027, 1030, and n. 2 (1973), and cases cited.
In addition, the rule of Miranda, supra, was a patent anomaly in the Courts of Appeals which sanctioned roving patrol searches without a showing even of suspicious circumstances. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, for example, held consistently that probable cause must be shown to validate a search for contraband except in a border search or its functional equivalent, see, e.g., Cervantes v. United States, 263 F.2d 800, 803 (1959); Fumagalli v. United States, 429 F.2d 1011 (1970), 3 and this despite a statutory authorization to search for contraband at least as broad as § 1357(a) (3).Y 14 Stat. 178, 19 U.S.C 482. 4 Moreover, the Courts of Appeals require some measure of cause to suspect violation of law in interrogations and arrest authorized by other subsections of 8 U.S.C. 1357(a). See Au Yi Law v. INS, 144 U.S.App.D.C. 147, 445 F.2d 217 (1971); Yam Sang Kwai v. INS, 133 U.S.App.D.C. 369, 411 F.2d 683 (1969).
This case is a good illustration of the dangers of addressing prospectivity where the 'sharp break' standard is not met. As this Court has recognized, applying a decision only prospectively, 6 can entail inequity to others whose cases are here on direct review but are held pending decision of the case selected for decision. Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 301, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 1972, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967). Although I continue to believe that denial of the benefits of the decision in such cases is a tolerable anomaly in cases in which defendants were accorded all constitutional rights then announced by this Court, it becomes intolerable, and a travesty of justice, when the Court does no more than reaffirm and apply long-established constitutional principles to correct an aberration created by the courts of appeals.
Nevertheless, the Court substitutes, at least as respects the availability of the exclusionary rule in cases involving searches invalid under the Fourth Amendment, a presumption against the availability of decisions of this Court except prospectively. The substitution discards not only the 'sharp break' determinant but also the equally established principle that prospectivity 'is not automatically determined by the provision of the Constitution on which the dictate is based. . . . (W)e must determine retroactivity 'in each case' by looking to the peculiar traits of the specific 'rule in question." Johnson v. New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 728, 86 S.Ct. 1772, 1778, 16 L.Ed.2d 882 (1966). 8 Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965), the seminal prospectivity decision, held only that 'the Court may in the interest of justice make (a) rule prospective . . . where the exigencies of the situation require such an application.' Id., at 628, 85 S.Ct. at 1737 (emphasis added). Today the Court stands the Linkletter holding on its head by creating a class of cases in which nonretroactivity is the rule and not, as heretofore, the exception.
The Court's stated reason for this remarkable departure from settled principles is 'the policies underlying the (exclusionary) rule.' Ante, at 534-535. But the policies identified by the Court as underlying that rule in Fourth Amendment cases are distorted out of all resemblance to the understanding of purposes that has heretofore prevailed. I said in my dissent in United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 94 S.Ct. 613, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974), that that decision left me 'with the uneasy feeling that . . . a majority of my colleagues have positioned themselves to . . . abandon altogether the exclusionary rule in search-and-seizure cases.' Id., at 365, 94 S.Ct. at 628. My uneasiness approaches conviction after today's treatment of the rule.
The Court's opinion depends upon an entirely new understanding of the exclusionary rule in Fourth Amendment cases, one which, if the vague contours outlined today are filled in as I fear they will be, forecasts the complete demise of the exclusionary rule as fashioned by this Court in over 61 years of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. See Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, 34 S.Ct. 341, 58 L.Ed. 652 (1914). 9 An analysis of the Court's unsuccessfully veiled reformulation demonstrates that its apparent rush to discard 61 years of constitutional development has produced a formula difficult to comprehend and, on any understanding of its meaning, impossible to justify.
The Court signals its new approach in these words: 'If the purpose of the exclusionary rule is to deter unlawful police conduct, then evidence obtained from a search should be suppressed only if it can be said that the law enforcement officer had knowledge, or may properly be charged with knowledge, that the search was unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment.' Ante, at 542. True, the Court does not state in so many words that this formulation of the exclusionary rule is to be applied beyond the present retroactivity context. But the proposition is stated generally and, particularly in view of the concomitant expansion of prospectivity announced today, Part I, supra, I have no confidence that the new formulation is to be confined to putative retroactivity cases. Rather, I suspect that when a suitable opportunity arises, today's revision of the exclusionary rule will be pronounced applicable to all search-and-seizure cases. I therefore register my strong disagreement now.
On this reasoning, Almeida-Sanchez itself was wrongly decided. For if the Border Patrolmen who searched Peltier could not have known that they were acting unconstitutionally, and thus could not have been deterred from the search by the possibility of the exclusion of the evidence from the trial, obviously the Border Patrolmen who searched Almeida-Sanchez several years earlier had no reason to be any more percipient. If application of the exclusionary rule depends upon a showing that the particular officials who conducted or authorized a particular search knew or should have known that they were violating a specific, established constitutional right, the reversal of Almeida-Sanchez' conviction was plainly error.
Other defects of today's new formulation are also patent. First, this new doctrine could stop dead in its tracks judicial development of Fourth Amendment rights. For if evidence is to be admitted in criminal trials in the absence of clear precedent declaring the search in question unconstitutional, the first duty of a court will be to deny the accused's motion to suppress if he cannot cite a case invalidating a search or seizure on identical facts. 14 Yet, even its opponents concede that the great service of the exclusionary rule has been its usefulness in forcing judges to enlighten our understanding of Fourth Amendment guarantees. 'It is . . . imperative to have a practical procedure by which courts can review alleged violations of constitutional rights and articulate the meaning of those rights. The advantage of the exclusionary ruleentirely apart from any direct deterrent effectis that it provides an occasion for judicial review, and it gives credibility to the constitutional guarantees. By demonstrating that society will attach serious consequences to the violation of constitutional rights, the exclusionary rule invokes and magnifies the moral and educative force of the law. Over the long term this may integrate some fourth amendment ideals into the value system or norms of behavior of law enforcement agencies.' Oaks, Studying the Exclusionary Rule in Search and Seizure, 37 U.Chi.L.Rev. 665, 756 (1970) (hereafter Oaks). See also Amsterdam, Perspectives on the Fourth Amendment, 58 Minn.L.Rev. 349, 429430 (1974) (hereafter Amsterdam). While distinguished authority has suggested that an effective affirmative remedy could equally serve that function, see Oaks, supra, and Bivens v. Six Unknown Federal Narcotics Agents, 403 U.S. 388, 420423, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 20162018, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971) (Burger, C.J., dissenting), no equally effective alternative has yet been devised.
Second, contrary to the Court's assumption, the exclusionary rule does not depend in its deterrence rationale on the punishment of individual law enforcement officials. 15 Indeed, one general fallacy in the reasoning of critics of the exclusionary rule is the belief that the rule is meant to deter official wrongdoers by punishment or threat of punishment. It is also the fallacy of the Court's attempt today to outline a revision in the exclusionary rule.
We therefore might consider, in this light, what may have influenced the officials who authorized roving searches without probable cause under the supposed authority of 8 U.S.C. 1357(a)(3) and 8 CFR § 287.1(a)(2) (1973). 18 The statute is at best ambiguous as to whether probable cause is required, though quite explicit that a warrant is not. 19 The officials could therefore read the statute in one of two ways. They could read it not to require probable cause, regard as irrelevant Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925), requiring probable cause, though no warrant, before stopping and searching a moving automobile unless the search is at the border, and command their subordinates to stop at random any car within 100 miles of the border and search for illegal aliens. Or they could conclude that because the statute is silent about probable cause, and because Carroll seems to require it, they should instruct their subordinates to stop moving vehicles away from the border only if there is some good reason to believe that they contain illegal aliens. Obviously, today's decision is a wide-open invitation to pursue the former course, because if this Court later decides that the officers guessed wrong in a particular case, one conviction will perhaps be lost, but many will have been gained, see supra, at 549, 554. The concept of the exclusionary rule until today, however, was designed to discourage officials from invariably opting for the choice that compromises Fourth Amendment rights, even though that rule has not worked perfectly as it did not in this case. 'The efforts of the courts and their officials to bring the guilty to punishment, praiseworthy as they are, are not to be aided by the sacrifice of those great principles established by years of endeavor and suffering which have resulted in their embodiment in the fundamental law of the land.' Weeks, 232 U.S., at 393, 34 S.Ct. at 344 (emphasis supplied).
Aside from this most fundamental error, solid practical reasons militate forcefully in favor of rejection of today's suggested road to revision of the exclusionary rule. This Court has already ready rejected a case-by-case approach to the exclusionary rule. After Wolf v. Colorado, 338 U.S. 25, 69 S.Ct. 1359, 93 L.Ed. 1782 (1949), had held the Fourth Amendment applicable to the States without also requiring the States to follow the exclusionary rule of Weeks, Irvine v. California, 347 U.S. 128, 74 S.Ct. 381, 98 L.Ed. 561 (1954), presented the opportunity of compelling the States to apply Weeks in especially egregious situations such as Irvine's. The Court rejected the opportunity because 'a distinction of the kind urged would leave the rule so indefinite that no state court could know what it should rule in order to keep its processes on solid constitutional ground.' Id., at 134, 74 S.Ct. at 384 (opinion of Jackson, J.). See also id., at 138, 74 S.Ct. at 386. (Clark, J., concurring).
If a majority of my colleagues are determined to discard the exclusionary rule in Fourth Amendment cases, they should forthrightly do so, and be done with it. This business of slow strangulation of the rule, with no opportunity afforded parties most concerned to be heard, would be indefensible in any circumstances. But to attempt covertly the erosion of an important principle over 61 years in the making as applied in federal courts clearly demeans the adjudicatory function, and the institutional integrity of this Court.
App. 28. The stipulation provided that it 'would not (have been) entered into had the (respondent's) motion to suppress in the case been granted.' Ibid.
The Fifth Circuit had reached a contrary conclusion in United States v. Miller, 492 F.2d 37 (1974).
The Court acknowledged the 'power of the Federal Government to exclude aliens from the country' and the constitutionality of 'routine inspections and searches of individuals or conveyances seeking to cross our borders.' 413 U.S., at 272, 93 S.Ct. 2535, 2539. While searches of this sort could be conducted 'not only at the border itself, but at its functional equivalents as well,' ibid., the Court concluded that the search at issue in the case 'was of a wholly different sort.' Id., at 273, 93 S.Ct. at 2539.
By the time Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965), was decided, Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961), had already been applied to three cases pending on direct review at the time Mapp was decided. Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 83 S.Ct. 1623, 10 L.Ed.2d 726 (1963); Fahy v. Connecticut, 375 U.S. 85, 84 S.Ct. 229, 11 L.Ed.2d 171 (1963); Stoner v. California, 376 U.S. 483, 84 S.Ct. 889, 11 L.Ed.2d 856 (1964). Those cases were decided without discussion of retroactivity principles, and they have not been interpreted as establishing any retroactivity limitation of general applicability. See Linkletter, supra, 381 U.S., at 622, 85 S.Ct. at 1733; Johnson v. New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 732, 86 S.Ct. 1772, 1780, 16 L.Ed.2d 882 (1966); Desist v. United States, 394 U.S. 244, 252253, 89 S.Ct. 1030, 10351036, 22 L.Ed.2d 248 (1969).
United States v. Thompson, 475 F.2d 1359 (CA5 1973); Kelly v. United States, 197 F.2d 162 (CA5 1952); Roa-Rodriquez v. United States, 410 F.2d 1206 (CA10 1969); United States v. Miranda, 426 F.2d 283 (CA9 1970); United States v. Almeida-Sanchez, 452 F.2d 459 (CA9 1971), rev'd, 413 U.S. 266, 93 S.Ct. 2535, 37 L.Ed.2d 596 (1973). In support of these holdings, the Courts of Appeals have relied upon cases sustaining searches and seizures at fixed checkpoints maintained within 100 air miles of the border. See nn. 9, 10, and 11, infra. Whether fixed-checkpoint searches and seizures are constitutional notwithstanding our decision in Almeida-Sanchez is before us in United States v. Ortiz, No. 73 2050, cert. granted, 419 U.S. 824, 95 S.Ct. 40, 42 L.Ed.2d 47 (1974); United States v. Bowen, 500 F.2d 960 (CA9), cert. granted, 419 U.S. 824, 95 S.Ct. 40, 42 L.Ed.2d 47 (1974).
Haerr v. United States, 240 F.2d 533 (1957); Ramirez v. United States, 263 F.2d 385 (1959); United States v. De Leon, 462 F.2d 170 (1972), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 853, 94 S.Ct. 76, 38 L.Ed.2d 102 (1973).
Fernandez v. United States, 321 F.2d 283 (1963); Barba-Reyes v. United States, 387 F.2d 91 (1967); United States v. Avey, 428 F.2d 1159, cert. denied, 400 U.S. 903, 91 S.Ct. 140, 27 L.Ed.2d 139 (1970); Fumagalli v. United States, 429 F.2d 1011 (1970); Mienke v. United States, 452 F.2d 1076 (1971); United States v. Foerster, 455 F.2d 981 (1972), vacated and remanded, 413 U.S. 915, 93 S.Ct. 3039, 37 L.Ed.2d 103 (1973).
United States v. McCormick, 468 F.2d 68 (1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 927, 93 S.Ct. 1361, 35 L.Ed.2d 588 (1973); United States v. Anderson, 468 F.2d 1280 (1972).
Mr. Justice BRENNAN's dissent also suggests that we were wrong to reverse the judgment affirming Almeida-Sanchez' conviction if we uphold the judgment of conviction against Peltier. But where it has been determined, as in a case such as Linkletter, that an earlier holding such as Mapp is not to be applied retroactively, it has not been questioned that Mapp was entitled to the benefit of the rule enunciated in her case. See Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S., at 300301, 87 S.Ct. 1967, at 1971 1972. Nor did the Government in Almeida-Sanchez urge upon us any considerations of exclusionary rule policy independent of the merits of the Fourth Amendment question which we decided adversely to the Government.
In its haste to extrapolate today's decision, that dissent argues that this decision will both 'stop dead in its tracks judicial development of Fourth Amendment rights' since 'the first duty of a court will be to deny the accused's motion to suppress if he cannot cite a case invalidating a search or seizure on identical facts' and add 'a new layer of factfinding in deciding motions to suppress in the already heavily burdened federal courts.' Post, at 554, 560. Whether today's decision will reduce the responsibilities of district courts, as the dissent first suggests, or whether that burden will be increased, as the dissent also suggests, it surely will not fulfill both of these contradictory prophecies. A fact not open to doubt is that the district courts are presently required, in hearing motions to suppress evidence, to spend substantial time addressing issues that do not go to a criminal defendant's guilt or innocence. In this case, for example, the transcript of the suppression hearing takes almost three times as many pages in the Appendix as is taken by the transcript of respondent's trial. App. 536.
This requirement has been variously stated. See, e.g., Desist v. United States, 394 U.S. 244, 248, 89 S.Ct. 1030, 1032 1033, 22 L.Ed.2d 248 (1969) ('a clear break with the past'); Milton v. Wainwright, 407 U.S. 371, 381 n. 2, 92 S.Ct. 2174, 2180, 33 L.Ed.2d 1 (1972) (Stewart, J., dissenting) ('a sharp break in the web of the law'); Chevron Oil Co. v. Huson, 404 U.S. 97, 106, 92 S.Ct. 349, 355, 30 L.Ed.2d 296 (1971) ('the decision to be applied nonretroactively must establish a new principle of law, either by overruling clear past precedent on which litigants may have relied . . . or by deciding an issue of first impression whose resolution was not clearly foreshadowed . . .').
In Cervantes, the court said: 'The government . . . appears to accept appellant's proposition that the reasonableness of a search made of an automobile on the highway and its driver depends upon a showing of probable cause. . . . That this is the proper test of the reasonableness of such a search, see Carroll v. United States, supra, 267 U.S., at pages 155156 . . ..' 263 F.2d, at 803, and n. 4. Despite this general language, Cervantes was later summarily distinguished as applying only to searches for contraband, and not to searches for aliens. Fumagalli v. United States, 429 F.2d, at 1013. No attempt was ever made to explain how a search for aliens could be distinguished under Carroll from a search for contraband. See United States v. Almeida-Sanchez, 452 F.2d, at 464 (Browning, J., dissenting).
'In order to avoid conflict between this statute and the Fourth Amendment, the statutory language has been restricted by the courts to 'border searches." United States v. Weil, 432 F.2d 1320, 1323 (CA9 1970).
Most cases where the Court has ordained prospective application of a new rule of criminal procedure have involved decisions which explicitly overruled a previous decision of this Court. See Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965), involving the retroactivity of Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961), which had overruled Wolf v.
Colorado, 338 U.S. 25, 69 S.Ct. 1359, 93 L.Ed. 1782 (1949); Williams v. United States, 401 U.S. 646, 91 S.Ct. 1148, 28 L.Ed.2d 388 (1971), involving the retroactivity of Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969), which overruled United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 70 S.Ct. 430, 94 L.Ed. 653 (1950), and Harris v. United States, 331 U.S. 145, 67 S.Ct. 1098, 91 L.Ed. 1399 (1947); Fuller v. Alaska, 393 U.S. 80, 89 S.Ct. 61, 21 L.Ed.2d 212 (1968) (per curiam), involving the retroactivity of Lee v. Florida, 392 U.S. 378, 88 S.Ct. 2096, 20 L.Ed.2d 1166 (1968), which overruled Schwartz v. Texas, 344 U.S. 199, 73 S.Ct. 232, 97 L.Ed. 231 (1952); Desist v. United States, 394 U.S. 244, 89 S.Ct. 1030, 22 L.Ed.2d 248 (1969), involving the retroactivity of Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967), which specifically rejected Goldman v. United States, 316 U.S. 129, 62 S.Ct. 993, 86 L.Ed. 1322 (1942), and Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 48 S.Ct. 564, 72 L.Ed. 944 (1928); Tehan v. United States ex rel. Shott, 382 U.S. 406, 86 S.Ct. 459, 15 L.Ed.2d 453 (1966), involving the retroactivity of Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106 (1965), which overruled Twining v. New Jersey, 211 U.S. 78, 29 S.Ct. 14, 53 L.Ed. 97 (1908); Daniel v. Louisiana, 420 U.S. 31, 95 S.Ct. 704, 42 L.Ed.2d 790 (1975), involving the retroactivity of Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522, 95 S.Ct. 692, 42 L.Ed.2d 690 (1975), which specifically disapproved Hoyt v. Florida, 368 U.S. 57, 82 S.Ct. 159, 7 L.Ed.2d 118 (1961).
In other instances, the practice recently disapproved had, at least arguably, been sanctioned previously by this Court. See 86 S.Ct. 1772, 16 L.Ed.2d 882 (1966); Gosa 86 S.Ct. 1772, 16 L.Ed. 882 (1966); Gosa v. Mayden, 413 U.S. 665, 673, 93 S.Ct. 2926, 2932, 37 L.Ed.2d 873 (1973) (opinion of Blackmun, J.; Adams v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 278, 92 S.Ct. 916, 31 L.Ed.2d 202 (1972).
Finally, in another group of cases, the rule applied prospectively was merely a prophylactic one, designed by this Court to protect underlying rights already announced and applicable retroactively. See Halliday v. United States, 394 U.S. 831, 89 S.Ct. 1498, 23 L.Ed.2d 16 (1969) (per curiam); Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967); Michigan v. Payne, 412 U.S. 47, 93 S.Ct. 1966, 36 L.Ed.2d 736 (1973).
Of course, we have always given the benefit of a criminal procedure decision to the defendant in whose case the principle was announced. See Stovall v. Denno, supra, 388 U.S., at 301, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 1972, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199.
I continue to believe that Mr. Justice Harlan and Mr. Justice Fortas were in error in Desist itself, because Katz v. United States, did overrule clear past precedent of this Court. But I think that the prophecy of horros by the dissenters in Desist has, with the Court's opinion today, come true.
The exclusionary rule in federal cases has roots that antedate even Weeks. Twenty-eight years before that decision, in Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 6 S.Ct. 524, 29 L.Ed. 746 (1886), the Court held that the admission into evidence of papers acquired by the Government in violation of the Fourth Amendment was unconstitutional. Id., at 638, 6 S.Ct. at 536.
I emphasize that this is a federal criminal case, and that the exclusionary rule issue comes to us on direct review. Thus, neither Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961), applying the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule to the States, nor Kaufman v. United States, 394 U.S. 217, 89 S.Ct. 1068, 22 L.Ed.2d 227 (1969), permitting Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule issues to be raised for the first time in collateral proceedings, is here involved. While abandonment of both Mapp and Kaufman has at times been advocated, no Justice has intimated that Weeks should also be overruled, at least in the absence of suitable and efficacious substitute remedies. See, on Mapp, Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 490, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 2050, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971) (Harlan, J., concurring); id., at 492, 91 S.Ct. at 2051 (Burger, C.J., dissenting in part and concurring in part); id., at 493, 91 S.Ct. at 2051 (Black, J., concurring and dissenting); id., at 510, 91 S.Ct. at 2060. (statement of Blackmun, J.); on Kaufman, see Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 250, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 2059, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973) (Powell, J., joined by Burger, C.J., and Rehnquist, J., concurring); see also, Id., at 249, 93 S.Ct. at 2059 (Blackmun, J., concurring). But see, on Weeks, Bivens v. Six Unknown Federal Narcotics Agents, 403 U.S. 388, 420421, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 20162017, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971) (Burger, C.J., dissenting); Schneckloth, supra, 412 U.S. at 267 268, n. 25, 93 S.Ct. at 2068 (Powell, J., concurring).
Wolf v. Colorado, 338 U.S. 25, 28, 69 S.Ct. 1359, 1361, 93 L.Ed. 1782 (1949), summarized Weeks as follows: 'In Weeks v. United States, supra, this Court held that in a federal prosecution the Fourth Amendment barred the use of evidence secured through an Illegal search and seizure.' (Emphasis added.) Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 212213, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 1441, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669 (1960), again confirmed the Weeks rule, '(e)vidence which had been seized by federal officers in violation of the Fourth Amendment (can)not be used in a federal criminal prosecution' (emphasis added), and expanded it to cover 'evidence obtained by state officers during a search which, if conducted by federal officers would have violated the defendant's immunity from unreasonable searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment,' id., at 223, 80 S.Ct. at 1447 (emphasis added); see also id., at 222, 80 S.Ct. at 1446. Similarly, Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 30, 83 S.Ct. 1623, 1628, 10 L.Ed.2d 726 (1963), stated that the exclusionary rule 'forbids the Federal Government to convict a man of crime by using testimony or papers obtained from him by unreasonable searches and seizures as defined in the Fourth Amendment' (emphasis supplied); see also id., at 34, 83 S.Ct. at 1630. Thus, the test whether evidence should be suppressed in federal court has always been solely whether the Fourth Amendment prohibition against 'unreasonable' searches and seizures was violated, nothing more and nothing less. See also, e.g., Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 176, 89 S.Ct. 961, 968, 22 L.Ed.2d 176 (1969); United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 347, 94 S.Ct. 613, 619, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974).
To be sure, the very vagueness of the intimated reformulation as articulated today leaves unclear exactly what showing demonstrates that a law enforcement officer 'may properly be charged with knowledge, that the search was unconstitutional.' In this case, for example, could the Border Patrol, a national organization, have been charged with knowledge of the unconstitutionality of an Almeida-Sanchez type search if the courts of appeals were in clear conflict on whether probable cause was required?
It is gratifying that the Court at least verbally restores to exclusionary-rule analysis this consideration, which for me is the core value served by the exclusionary rule. See Harris v. New York, 401 U.S. 222, 231232, 91 S.Ct. 643, 648649, 28 L.Ed.2d 1 (1971) (Brennan, J., dissenting); United States v. Calandra, supra, 414 U.S. 338, at 355, 94 S.Ct. 613, 624, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (Brennan, J., dissenting). But the Court's treatment of this factor is wholly unsatisfactory. See id., at 359360, 94 S.Ct. at 625626 (Brennan, J., dissenting). I need discuss the question no further, however, since the Court merges the 'imperative of judicial integrity' into its deterrence rationale, ante, at 538, and then ignores the imperative when it applies its new theory to the facts of this case, see Part II of the Court's opinion. Rather, I show in the text that, on the Court's own deterrence rationale alone, today's suggested reformulation would be a disaster.
Angelet v. Fay, 381 U.S. 654, 85 S.Ct. 1750, 14 L.Ed.2d 623 (1965), declined to decide whether Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961), would bar federal agents from testifying in a state court concerning illegally obtained evidence, because Mapp was held in Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965) to be nonretroactive. Somewhat similarly, Michigan v. Tucker, 417 U.S. 433, 94 S.Ct. 2357, 41 L.Ed.2d 182 (1974), refused to decide whether Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), applies to exclude the testimony of a witness discovered as a result of a statement given after incomplete Miranda warnings, because the interrogation in Tucker occurred before Miranda. See also Michigan v. Payne, 412 U.S., at 4950, n. 3, 93 S.Ct. 1966, 19671968, 36 L.Ed.2d 736. Thus, there is clear precedent for avoiding decision of a constitutional issue raised by police behavior when in any event the evidence was admissible in the particular case at bar.
Critics of the exclusionary rule emphasize that in actual operation law enforcement officials are rarely reprimanded, discharged, or otherwise disciplined when evidence is excluded at trial for search-and-seizure violations. While this fact, to the extent it is true, may limit the efficacy of the exclusionary rule, it does not, for the reasons stated in the text, prove it useless. Suggestions are emerging for tailoring the exclusionary rule to the adoption and enforcement of regulations and training procedures concerning searches and seizures by law enforcement agencies. Amsterdam 409 et seq.; Kaplan, The Limits of the Exclusionary Rule, 26 Stan.L.Rev. 1027, 1050 et seq. (1974). Today's approach, rather than advancing this goal, would diminish the incentive for law enforcement agencies to train and supervise subordinate officers. See id., at 1044. At any rate, to the extent law enforcement agencies do visit upon individual employees consequences for conducting searches and seizures which are later held illegal, the agencies can be expected to take account of the degree of departure from existing norms as elucidated in court decisions. Thus, there is no need for the courts to adjust the exclusionary rule in order to assure fairness to individual officials or to promote decisiveness.
I assume that the Court's statement that 'the purpose of the exclusionary rule is to deter unlawful police conduct,' ante, at 542, does not imply that deterrence can work only at the level of the individual officers on the scene, nor suggest that under its approach only the knowledge, real or constructive, of the official conducting the search is relevant. Fourth Amendment violations become more, not less, reprehensible when they are the product of Government policy rather than an individual policeman's errors of judgment. See Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S., at 203, 89 S.Ct. 961, 982, 22 L.Ed.2d 176 (Fortas, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part).
Obviously, any rule intended to prevent Fourth Amendment violations must operate not only upon individual law enforcement officers but also upon those who set policy for them and approve their actions. Otherwise, for example, evidence derived from any search under a warrant could be admissible, because the searching policeman, having had a warrant approved by the designated judicial officer, had every reason to believe the warrant valid. Certainly, the Court can intend no such result, and would have lower courts inquire into the frame of mind, actual and constructive, of all officials whose actions were relevant to the search.
See supra, at 545, and n. 2.
In addition, adding 'one more factfinding operation, and an especially difficult one to administer, to those already required of (the) lower judiciary' could add a factor of discretion to the operation of the exclusionary rule impossible for the appellate courts effectively to control. Kaplan, supra, n. 15, at 1045.
Indeed, Congress in recent years has declined to take steps somewhat similar to those now proposed. See Canon, Is the Exclusionary Rule in Failing Health? Some New Data and a Plea Against a Precipitous Conclusion, 62 Ky.L.J. 681, 694696 (1974).
John Lee BOWEN, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES.
UNITED STATES v. Kenneth Lee MORRISON.
UNITED STATES v. Frank Daniel DIETER.

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