Opinion ID: 34827
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The dismissal on March 5, 2001, of the state

Text: solicitation for murder charge for “no probable cause” pulls the rug out from under the government’s assertion that Gould’s “threats to kill” were sufficiently real and immediate to justify talking with him even without any warrant; and B. The decision of the state court on July 25, 2001, to grant Gould’s motion to suppress pulls the rug out from under the subsequent federal indictment based on identical facts; and should have been disclosed to the federal district court addressing the federal suppression hearing. Had it been, the federal district court might well have based its decision on the alternate ground that the state had already ruled the seizure of the firearms was 58 unconstitutional. In summary, the Fourth Amendment is the keystone that holds up the arch of our Bill of Rights which in turn is the unique contribution of our founding fathers to our system of government which has now survived longer than any other representative government in the world. In his famous dissent in Olmstead v. United States, Justice Brandeis called privacy-which he defined as: ”the right to be let alone”-“the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.” 277 U.S. 438, 478 (1928)(Brandeis, J., dissenting). Justice Brandeis argued that the framers knew that Americans wanted protection from governmental intrusion not only for their property, but also for their thoughts, ideas and emotions. Take away the Fourth Amendment and the right of privacy disappears. The deputy sheriffs here in Gould made no attempt to develop a sworn affidavit in writing from the purported informant, Forehand,29 and they therefore made no attempt to get either a search warrant or an arrest warrant from an independent third party magistrate on the basis of probable cause. I have no doubt that the 29 After giving oral reports over the telephone to the deputy sheriffs about Gould and after being present at Gould’s trailer house on the night of Gould’s arrest, Forehand disappears from the investigation and processing of this trial. Forehand never gave a written statement to the deputy sheriffs and did not testify for the government at the suppression hearing so the government’s case as to the need for the police to interview Gould (i.e., Gould’s threats to kill state judges) is based entirely on the hearsay testimony of the deputy sheriffs. There is nothing in this record that demonstrates the reliability or credibility of Forehand as a previous informant of the sheriff’s department. 59 deputy sheriffs believed that they were acting reasonably and with good intentions. But the old adage warns us that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” In my judgment, that is precisely where the majority opinion wants to put us-by unhooking the “protective sweep” from its connection with the execution of an arrest warrant in a home, which is where the Supreme Court framed the concept. In my view the gambit of getting permission to enter a citizen’s home in order to talk to someone and then conducting a protective sweep search under the guise of sensing danger to the investigating officer will effectively eliminate the need for complying with the Fourth Amendment and at that point we will all be, literally and figuratively, on the road to hell.