Opinion ID: 505922
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Information was available to make the warrant more particular.

Text: 47 In addition to being overbroad on its face, the Kleinberg warrant is flawed because information was available to the government to make the description of the items to be seized much more particular. Admittedly, a general description is not always invalid. 48 Courts tend to tolerate a greater degree of ambiguity [in the warrant's description] where law enforcement agents have done the best that could reasonably be expected under the circumstances, have acquired all the descriptive facts which a reasonable investigation could be expected to cover, and have insured that all those facts were included in the warrant. 49 United States v. Young, 745 F.2d 733, 759 (2d Cir.1984), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1084, 105 S.Ct. 1842, 85 L.Ed.2d 142 (1985). In this case, however, the government's argument that the warrant was as specific as the circumstances and the nature of the activity under investigation permit is untenable. Agent Juhasz' affidavit in support of the warrant was very specific, alleging the attempted illegal export of a specific product to the People's Republic of China via a series of specific companies in Hong Kong. Yet none of this information was reflected in the warrant. The warrant could have been limited to documents related to the Micro-tel transaction, to the companies suspected of participating in the illegal export, to the countries involved in the route of the export, Hong Kong and China, or to a specific period of time coincident to the suspect transaction. Yet the government chose to include none of these limiting factors. As the Ninth Circuit found in Spilotro,[T]he government could have narrowed most of the descriptions in the warrants either by describing in greater detail the items one commonly expects to find on premises used for the criminal activities in question, or at the very least, by describing the criminal activities themselves rather than simply referring to the statute believed to have been violated. As the warrants stand, however, they authorize wholesale seizures of entire categories of items not generally evidence of criminal activity, and provide no guidelines to distinguish items used lawfully from those the government had probable cause to seize. 50 Spilotro, 800 F.2d at 964; see also United States v. Fuccillo, 808 F.2d 173, 176 (1st Cir.) ( 'In light of the information available to the agents which could have served to narrow the scope of the warrant and protect the defendants' personal rights, the warrant was inadequate.' ) (quoting United States v. Klein, 565 F.2d 183, 190 (1st Cir.1977)), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 2481, 96 L.Ed.2d 374 (1987); United States v. Cook, 657 F.2d 730, 733 (5th Cir. Unit A Sept.1981) (Failure to employ the specificity available will invalidate a general description in a warrant.). 51