Opinion ID: 1806677
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Inspection of Ice Chests and Compartments

Text: Whether the officers' actions in searching the ice chests and boat compartment violated any constitutional rights of the plaintiffs is a debatable question. It need not be resolved in this case, however. This is not a criminal prosecution in which the hunters seek to suppress or exclude evidence discovered during that search. In this civil rights action, even if the search of the ice chests and compartment violated the plaintiffs' constitutional rights the officers may upon proper showing invoke qualified good faith immunity as a defense. Applying the principles of qualified immunity, the relevant question is whether the officers' conduct in inspecting the ice chest or the life preserver compartments violated clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. at 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2738. Stated differently, the question is whether a reasonable officer could have believed these inspections to be lawful, in light of clearly established law and the information the searching officers possessed. See Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 641, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3039, 97 L.Ed.2d 523, 532 (1987). It was not clear at the time of these searches, and is still not today, whether the constitution or federal law prohibits game agents from making random or checkpoint stops in the marsh for the purpose of ensuring compliance with hunting and fishing laws. In Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979), the Supreme Court held unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment state patrol officers' practice of making random stops to check driver's licenses and vehicle registrations without at least articulable and reasonable suspicion of a violation of law. The court reasoned that the state's interest in discretionary spot checks as a means of insuring the safety of its roadways does not outweigh the resulting invasion of privacy, given the physical and psychological intrusion visited on the occupants of a vehicle by a random stop to check documents. But the majority opinion concluded by stating that [t]his holding does not preclude the State of Delaware or other States from developing methods for spot checks that involve less intrusion or that do not involve the unconstrained exercise of discretion. Questioning of all oncoming traffic at roadblock-type stops is one possible alternative. Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. at 663, 99 S.Ct. at 1401. Moreover, Justices Blackmun and Powell, in a concurring opinion, remarked on the scope and effect of the court's opinion, observing, in pertinent part, that I would not regard the present case as a precedent that throws any constitutional shadow upon the necessarily somewhat individualized and perhaps largely random examinations by game wardens in the performance of their duties. In a situation of that type, it seems to me, the court's balancing process, and the value factors under consideration, would be quite different. 440 U.S. at 664, 99 S.Ct. at 1401 (Emphasis added). A number of state courts have relied on Prouse to approve random and checkpoint stops and varying degrees of inspections by game agents. See State v. Halverson, 277 N.W.2d 723 (S.D.1979) (Since it is a privilege to hunt wild game, a hunter tacitly consents to the inspection of any game animal in his possession.); State v. Tourtillott, 289 Or. 845, 618 P.2d 423 (1980) (the governmental interest in the ... preservation of wildlife ... justif[ies] the minimal intrusion upon the Fourth Amendment rights of those stopped for brief questioning and a visual inspection of their activities.); Drane v. State, 493 So.2d 294 (Miss.1986) (any vehicle may be searched for illegal game or firearms while within, entering or leaving a management area); People v. Layton, 196 Ill.App.3d 78, 142 Ill.Dec. 539, 546, 552 N.E.2d 1280, 1287 (1990) ([I]mplied consent ... to search ... limited to containers of a size and type as experience dictated might be used for holding separate any illegally taken game....). Although we do not necessarily agree with these interpretations of Prouse, and they have received cogent criticism, 4 W. LaFave, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 10.8(e) (2d ed. 1987); State v. Tourtillott, 618 P.2d at 435 (Linde, J., dissenting), we conclude that on January 11, 1986, the date of the conduct at issue in the present case, a reasonable officer could have believed that either a checkpoint or a random stop and inspection of the mudboat containing Patrick Moresi, Kern Alleman and their game did not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights. Furthermore, in light of the information the searching officers possessed, the fact that the two hunters had in their open possession on the bow of the mudboat five limits of ducks, two untagged and three tagged with names of absent persons, the officers had grounds for at least an articulable and reasonable suspicion that Moresi and Alleman were involved in game violations. When the officers were informed that the ice chest contained additional ducks, the particularized and objective basis for suspicion became more firm. Under all of the above circumstances, a reasonable officer could have believed that an inspection of the ice chest and compartments of the boat for illegal game was justified and lawful. The Supreme Court has said nothing since Prouse to undermine such a reading of the federal constitutional law as of January 11, 1986. Its recent decision in Michigan State Police Department v. Sitz, ___ U.S. ___, 110 S.Ct. 2481, 110 L.Ed.2d 412 (1990) approving a surprise sobriety checkpoint program may lend it more support. In that case the court found that there is virtually no difference between a routine stop at a permanent, fixed checkpoint and a surprise stop at a sobriety checkpoint and concluded that the law enforcement interest in using sobriety checkpoints outweighs the citizen's interest in freedom from random, unannounced investigatory seizures. Agent Jukes' slight intrusion of looking into an empty ice chest at the camp occurred after a valid arrest of the young hunters and during the agents' visit to verify the fathers' duck tags and to make sure the Moresi-Alleman group was not part of the illegal duck smuggling operation about which they had received a tip. As we have noted, many courts have allowed game agents to conduct searches of hunters and their gear in the field based simply on the highly regulated nature of hunting, the state's dominant interest in the management and conservation of wildlife, and the view that hunting is not a right but a privilege to which licensing requirements apply. See W. Ringel, Searches & Seizures, Arrests and Confessions § 14.3(b)(1) and (2); see also United States v. Raub, 637 F.2d 1205 (9th Cir. 1980), cert. denied 449 U.S. 922, 101 S.Ct. 322, 66 L.Ed.2d 150 (1980) (commercial fishing); Tallman v. Dept. of Natural Resources, 421 Mich. 585, 365 N.W.2d 724 (1984) (commercial fishing); Oregon v. Westside Fish Co., 31 Or.App. 299, 570 P.2d 401 (1977) (wholesale fish dealer); and, South Dakota v. Halverson, 277 N.W.2d 723 (N.D.1979) (hunting). Although, we do not necessarily agree with these authorities, it cannot be said that their interpretation of the federal constitutional jurisprudence is unreasonable. Accordingly, we cannot say that Agent Jukes' brief look into the ice chest was a violation of a clearly established constitutional right of which a reasonably competent game agent should have been aware.