Opinion ID: 1917628
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Applying Good Faith Exception

Text: We turn now to the good-faith exception as it applies to the situation actually before us: Debruhl's case came to this court after Gant. The government argues that the officers acted in reasonably objective (good faith) reliance on Belton and this court's interpretations of it. If our cases interpreting Belton, as the government suggests, had settled that the officers were allowed to conduct a warrantless search on the facts they encountered in Debruhl  that is, if our case law was not ambiguous as to that situationthen, theoretically, the test for the good-faith exception would have been met. The law would have been settled as explicitly as the permission reflected in a judicially-approved warrant ( Leon ) or an unambiguous statute ( Krull ), because all material facts presented in Debruhl would have been congruent with those in which previous warrantless searches had received this court's blessing. On the other hand, if our case law on which the officers relied was ambiguous, as applied to the factual scenario at issue in Debruhl, then the officers would not have relied on settled law, and the good-faith exception would not apply. [36] Indeed, if the exception were to apply in this situation, we would be legitimating a mistake-of-law basis for the good-faith exception. More specifically, if this court were to grant the officer slack in determining what facts were material, we would be delegating to the officer, not reserving to the court, interpretation of the facts and law controlling application of the Fourth Amendment and the exclusionary rule. Put still another way, this court would be allowing the officer to rely on relevant, but not controlling, case law to authorize admission of evidence that the court itself might well have suppressed before the Supreme Court announced modification of Belton in Gant. We turn, therefore, to the question whether the officers here relied on settled law that, before Gant, would have permitted their search of Debruhl's car.