Opinion ID: 1442315
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Was the Intrusion Reasonable and thus Valid

Text: The government contends that the intrusion involved in this case was minimal, and thus should be sustained since it was reasonable even in the absence of probable cause. It appears that the government thereby contends that where this court determines, apparently on an ad hoc basis, that a search is reasonable, we should sustain its constitutional validity. While it is true that the Fourth Amendment only interdicts unreasonable searches and seizures, it has been clear since at least Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967), that searches conducted outside the judicial process, without prior approval by judge or magistrate, are per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment  subject only to a few specifically established and well-delineated exceptions. Id. at 357, 88 S.Ct. at 514 (footnotes omitted). And in Chimel, the Court said: Such searches, in the absence of well-recognized exceptions, may be made only under authority of a search warrant. The `adherence to judicial process' mandated by the Fourth Amendment requires no less. 395 U.S. 752, 763, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 2040, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969) (footnote omitted). [8] Having concluded that none of these specifically established and well-delineated exceptions is applicable in this case, as we are commanded by Katz, supra, and Chimel, supra, to do, we reject the government's invitation to venture forth on the uncharted sea of ad hoc adjudications of constitutional reasonableness. Reversed. GALLAGHER, Associate Judge, dissenting: As we know in Fourth Amendment cases minor circumstances often alter results. It is agreed that the officer could have placed his hand under the car seat to search when he first entered the car to drive it to the precinct. It does not strike me as unreasonable that, instead, he placed his hand under the seat in the same car 14 blocks and, from all that appears, a few minutes later when he arrived in front of the precinct. As an earthy proposition, I view the search here as being reasonably contemporaneous.