Opinion ID: 758098
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The District Court's Limiting Construction of the Statute

Text: 72 As discussed above, the regulation under which the search was conducted authorizes the Security Officers to search the [p]ackages, briefcases, and other containers carried by persons onto federal property. See 41 C.F.R. § 101-20.301. The regulation does not specify the subject of the search, nor does it create an established procedure that limits discretion and sets the parameters of the search. 73 In implementing the regulation, the Security Officers construed this regulation in conjunction with regulations that ban alcohol, narcotics, and gambling materials, as well as with the regulations prohibiting the possession of weapons and explosives. Based upon this reading, the Security Officers were instructed to search for narcotics as well as weapons and explosives. An administrative search for alcohol, narcotics, and gambling materials, however, is not permissible under the Fourth Amendment because the intrusiveness of the search outweighs the Government's need to conduct such a search. The district court therefore found that 41 C.F.R. § 101-20.301 was unconstitutional when implemented in conjunction with regulations prohibiting alcohol, narcotics, and gambling materials. The district court, however, declined to strike down the regulation because it found that a reasonable limiting construction could be put on the regulation. 74 Where an otherwise acceptable statute or regulation raises serious constitutional problems as construed, courts will construe that statute to avoid the constitutional problems unless such construction is plainly contrary to the intent of its drafters. See Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. v. Florida Gulf Coast Bldg. and Constr. Trades Council, 485 U.S. 568, 575, 108 S.Ct. 1392, 99 L.Ed.2d 645 (1988); see also United States v. Stansell, 847 F.2d 609, 615 (9th Cir.1988) (holding that regulation was not unconstitutionally overbroad because a reasonable limiting construction can be applied). 75 Here, the regulation as applied authorized an unreasonably broad administrative search in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The district court therefore applied a limiting construction under which the regulation permitted a constitutional administrative search for weapons or explosives. The court read the regulation in conjunction with 41 C.F.R. § 101-20.313 And 18 U.S.C. § 930, which prohibits entering federal property carrying firearms or explosives, and requires that notice of such prohibition be posted conspicuously. Construing 41 C.F.R. § 101-20.301 with these statutes, the regulation allows the Government to make an administrative search for weapons where intent to do such a search is clearly posted. Under Davis and McMorris, the regulation, if so limited, would authorize administrative searches that were constitutional in their scope. 76 We agree with the district court's limiting construction of the regulation. Because the regulation as applied to Bulacan represented an unconstitutional expansion of an administrative search, the district court's decision to suppress the evidence is also affirmed. 77 Affirmed.