Opinion ID: 2975657
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Change in the Condition of the Luggage

Text: The question of whether a reasonable certainty exists that there has been no change in the condition of a defendant’s luggage has traditionally been answered by examining the totality of the circumstances. See United States v. Alfonso, 759 F.2d 728, 735 (9th Cir. 1985). While declining to create a rigid test to determine whether this prong is met, courts have consistently looked to three factors to make this determination. These factors are a suspect’s distance from the checkpoint, the amount of time that elapsed between the border crossing and the detention, and whether the suspect was under surveillance while away from the checkpoint. See, e.g., United States v. Caicedo-Guarnizo, 723 F.2d 1420, 1423 (9th Cir. 1984); United States v. Fogelman, 586 F.2d 337, 339-340 (5th Cir. 1978). The validity of an extended border search is dependent upon the officers’ certainty that the suspect was in possession of any contraband when the border crossing occurred; otherwise, the doctrine simply unconstitutionally lowers the probable cause requirement for justifying the search of a citizen. Caicedo-Guarnizo, 723 F.2d at 1422 (“The validity of such a search depends on whether the fact finder, viewing the totality of the circumstances, is reasonably certain that the suspected smuggler did not acquire the contraband after crossing the border.”). Thus, it is essential that officers be able to point to some evidence that the suspect was in possession of the contraband at the time of the border crossing. While temporal and physical proximity to the checkpoint can raise an inference that no change in the condition of luggage has occurred, surveillance of the suspect is the most direct way to insure that the suspect did not simply come into possession of the contraband after the border crossing. See Alexander v. United States, 362 F.2d 379, 382 (9th Cir. 1966). Accordingly, surveillance of the suspect while he or she is away from the security checkpoint has traditionally been viewed as one of the hallmarks of reasonable certainty with respect to establishing that there has been no change to the condition of the luggage. See, e.g., Alfonso, 759 F.2d at 735; United States v. Espericueta-Reyes, 631 F.2d 616, 620 (9th Cir. 1980). This point is particularly salient in a situation like the instant case, where the contraband is not something that is illegal outside of the context of a border crossing. Unlike a case where a suspect is found in possession of an illegal narcotic or substance, which is unlawful no matter when the suspect possesses it, Defendant in the instant case was found to be in possession of currency over the amount of $10,000, an act which is unlawful only when such a sum is not declared at the border. This case raises the concern of punishing a citizen for acquiring something that may have been perfectly lawful when acquired; thus, it is of paramount importance that the border patrol agents be reasonably certain that Defendant was in possession of the additional currency when she crossed the border. Surveillance of a suspect during his or her absence from the security checkpoint is the most effective means of providing evidence that the condition of a person’s luggage has remained No. 06-5782 United States v. McGinnis Page 12 unchanged after the person has passed through a security checkpoint. In fact, the Fourth Circuit has gone so far as to call surveillance “the most important single factor in assessing reasonableness” of a search under the extended border search doctrine. United States v. Bilir, 592 F.2d 735, 741 (4th Cir. 1979). Similarly, the Ninth Circuit has included the existence of surveillance of the suspect as an explicit element of its “Alexander test,” which that court uses to determine whether there is reasonable certainty that there has been no change in the condition of the luggage. See Espericueta-Reyes (citing Alexander, 362 F.2d at 382-83 for the proposition that reasonable certainty should be determined by looking to the totality of the circumstances, which involves considering the amount of time elapsed, the distance from the border, and “the manner and extent of surveillance”). Other courts that have adopted the extended border search doctrine have likewise given substantial weight to the fact that the suspect was under surveillance while away from the security checkpoint in determining that the subsequent search was reasonable. See, e.g., United States v. Garcia, 672 F.2d 1349, 1367 (11th Cir. 1982); United States v. Fogelman, 586 F.2d 337, 339-340 (5th Cir. 1978). There are rare instances in which courts have found a search reasonable under this doctrine despite the fact that there was no continuous surveillance of the suspect in his or her absence from the checkpoint. As the majority observes, in United States v. Mejias, 452 F.2d 1190 (9th Cir. 1971), the court upheld a search that occurred ninety minutes after a suspect passed through customs even though he was not under constant surveillance. Importantly, the suspect in that case maintained a close physical proximity to the security checkpoint area, which allowed one of the customs officials to monitor his actions after the initial search. Id. at 1192. Thus, the question in that case was not whether surveillance had to occur, but whether the surveillance had to be continuous. The court held that where other factors raised a strong presumption that no change in the condition of the luggage had occurred, the court could accept brief lapses in surveillance and still find with reasonable certainty that there had been no change in the condition of the luggage. Id. at 1193. Likewise, the Seventh Circuit’s holding in Yang can be distinguished on its facts. In that case, the court found in favor of the government on this factor, even though the suspect had been away from the checkpoint for between thirty and forty-five minutes and had not been under surveillance. Yang, 286 F.3d at 948. The court reasoned that because the suspect had entered a different terminal during that time, and thus, his luggage was uncovered while it was in the possession of airport personnel, it was highly unlikely that there had been any change in its condition since the border crossing. Id. See also United States v. Walters, 591 F.2d 1195, 1198 (5th Cir.1979) (finding a search reasonable despite a lack of surveillance where fifty-five minutes elapsed since the border crossing, but the defendant “was not significantly removed physically or temporally from the border.”). Importantly, each of these cases acknowledged the fact that a common requirement was disregarded by not requiring surveillance of the defendant and explained the court’s rationale for doing so. Where a court finds a search to be reasonable in spite of the fact that the suspect was not under surveillance for a period of time, there must be facts akin to those in Yang and Walters that justify disregarding “the most important single factor in assessing reasonableness.” Bilir, 592 F.2d at 741. The instant case is simply devoid of such facts. Not only was Defendant never under surveillance, but there are no facts whatsoever that can make up for this lack of surveillance. The majority opinion bases its conclusion that there had been no change in the condition of Defendant’s luggage during the intervening time between the two searches entirely on two facts that fall woefully short of providing a justification for the search. First, the majority reasons that the amount of money found in Defendant’s possession beyond her original $3,000 declaration, “over $7,000” (the amount was actually $14,358), was not an amount that likely could be obtained from an airport ATM. Second, the majority claims that the only activity in which Defendant could have engaged in the interval between the two searches was to purchase another airline ticket, which means she would have spent money instead of obtaining more. The majority’s insistence that Defendant could not No. 06-5782 United States v. McGinnis Page 13 have obtained the money from an ATM ignores the fact that Defendant could have simply acquired the additional funds from another person once she entered the airport, which would not have involved the use of an ATM at all. While it is unnecessary for us to speculate as to the source of the money, the “suspension of reality” of which the majority speaks is far from necessary in order to suppose that Defendant may have obtained the money after she crossed the border and departed from the border checkpoint. More to the point, none of the facts upon which the majority relies were known at the time that the officers searched Defendant’s luggage. It hardly needs stating that a search cannot be retroactively justified by facts uncovered during the course of that search. Such an elementary maxim is well established. United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 115 (1984); Whiteley v. Warden, 401 U.S. 560, 567, n. 11 (1971); Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 484 (1963); Rios v. United States, 364 U.S. 253, 261-262 (1960); Henry v. United States, 361 U.S. 98, 103 (1959); Miller v. United States, 357 U.S. 301, 312 (1958); United States v. Di Re, 332 U.S. 581, 595 (1948); Byars v. United States, 273 U.S. 28, 29 (1927). The majority’s ex post facto approach of justifying a search based on facts or evidence not known at the time that the search was conducted is wholly at odds with the requirement that reasonable suspicion or probable cause exist prior to a search being undertaken. The majority’s holding runs directly contrary to the requirements of the Fourth Amendment, the extended border search doctrine this Court purports to adopt today, and even fundamental principles of logic. In the absence of observable facts or verifiable information prior to the search, the majority is entirely without support for its finding that there was a reasonable certainty that there had been no change in the condition of Defendant’s luggage at the time it was searched.