Opinion ID: 382978
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Search and Seizure on the High Seas

Text: 10 Appellant first argues that 14 U.S.C. § 89(a) is unconstitutional because it allows the Coast Guard to stop and board a vessel on the high seas without probable cause or reasonable suspicion. The fourth amendment prohibits only those searches and seizures that are unreasonable. This Circuit has found the Coast Guard's § 89(a) plenary authority to stop and board American vessels on the high seas to inspect for safety, documentation, and obvious customs and narcotics violations to be reasonable within the meaning of the fourth amendment. United States v. Williams, 617 F.2d 1063, 1075-78 (5th Cir. 1980) (en banc); United States v. Erwin, 602 F.2d 1183, 84 (5th Cir. 1979) (per curiam); United States v. Warren, 578 F.2d 1058, 1064-65 (5th Cir. 1978) (en banc). Such searches may be conducted in the complete absence of suspicion of criminal activity. Williams at 1075. 11 Appellant's next contention leads us into less certain waters. Appellant asserts that even if we assume the Coast Guard correctly stopped and boarded the Cowboy, Helms subsequent search of the ice hold was conducted without probable cause and is therefore violative of the fourth amendment. 12 Our inquiry properly begins with a determination of whether the disputed search has infringed an interest of the appellant which the fourth amendment was designed to protect. Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 140, 99 S.Ct. 421, 428, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978). Specifically, we must decide whether or not DeWeese has a legitimate expectation of privacy in the ice hold of a large shrimping vessel. See Rawlings v. Kentucky, --- U.S. ----, 100 S.Ct. 2256, 2261, 65 L.Ed.2d 633 (1980). 13 Our most recent en banc encounter with search and seizure at sea embraces this initial inquiry required by Rakas. United States v. Williams, 617 F.2d 1063 (5th Cir. 1980) (en banc). In Williams we held: 14 We have concluded that reasonable suspicion is the appropriate fourth amendment standard by which to judge section 89(a) searches of the private areas-if there can be such areas-of the holds of vessels in international waters conducted for the purpose of discovering contraband or evidence of criminal activity. 15 617 F.2d at 1088. 16 In Williams we assumed that the defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the hold, thereby avoiding the issue of what is necessary to constitute a privacy interest in the hold of a merchant vessel. Id., at 1084-85. We cannot, and should not, avoid that issue here. 17 It has been established that the fourth amendment's protection is not to be measured exclusively by the laws defining property rights, trespass, and the like. Rawlings v. Kentucky, --- U.S. ----, 100 S.Ct. 2556, 2562, 65 L.Ed.2d 633 (1980); Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S., at 149-150, n.17, 99 S.Ct., at 434 n.17 (1978). One may have a protected expectation of privacy in the absence of property interest. Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967); Rios v. United States, 364 U.S. 253, 80 S.Ct. 1431, 4 L.Ed.2d 1688 (1960). On the other hand, one may have fee simple title to property upon which he has no expectation of privacy. Lewis v. United States, 385 U.S. 206, 87 S.Ct. 424, 17 L.Ed.2d 312 (1966). See Hester v. United States, 265 U.S. 57, 59, 44 S.Ct. 445, 446, 68 L.Ed. 898 (1924). For example, the owner of a mercantile establishment gives up any legitimate expectation of privacy as to goods and wares in his glass enclosed shop window. 18 Upon and within enclosed real or other property, expectation of privacy may vary from area to area. The outer walls of a single family residence will usually be coextensive with privacy therein. In a condominium building, all legitimately inside the building have free access to the common areas; an owner's expectation of privacy, vis-a-vis others properly inside, would normally be limited to the owner's private living quarters. 19 Within a property where some of the enclosed area is private to the individual and the rest freely accessible, there may yet remain an expectation of privacy as to persons not entitled to be upon the property at all. Marshall v. Barlow's, Inc., 436 U.S. 307, 314-15, 98 S.Ct. 1816, 1821-22, 56 L.Ed.2d 305 (1978). Nevertheless, in an area to which access is freely given to all properly and lawfully within the close, it is apparent that, as to them, a reasonable expectation of privacy does not exist in the common area. Cf. United States v. Dionisio, 410 U.S. 1, 13-16, 93 S.Ct. 764, 771, 35 L.Ed.2d 67 (1973) (the fourth amendment does not protect what a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office ....) 20 Of those legitimately aboard the Cowboy on the morning of May 14, 1979 was Petty Officer Helms. 14 U.S.C. § 89(a). United States v. Williams, 617 F.2d 1063, 1075-78 (5th Cir. 1980) (en banc); United States v. Erwin, 602 F.2d 1183, 1184 (5th Cir. 1979) (per curiam); United States v. Warren, 578 F.2d 1058, 1064-65 (5th Cir. 1978) (en banc). Though not pertinent to our task today, there may well have been enclosures to which Captain DeWeese and other individuals lawfully aboard retained a legitimate expectation of privacy. A crewman's foot locker, duffle bag, private cabin or quarters may well have been accessible to only that one individual and not others. The ice hold into which each would be expected to go (or, at least, to peer) was not such an area. 1 There can be no legitimate expectation of privacy in those areas of a commercial vessel which are subject to the common access of those legitimately aboard the vessel. Cf. Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 466-468, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 2038-2039, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971). 21