Opinion ID: 2587524
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: reasons for departing from federal precedent

Text: {14} Under Gomez, a state court may diverge from federal precedent for one of the following three reasons: a flawed federal analysis, structural differences between state and federal government, or distinctive state characteristics. Gomez, 1997-NMSC-006, ¶ 19, 122 N.M. 777, 932 P.2d 1 (internal citations omitted). We do not find flaw in the federal analysis, nor do we detect structural differences between state and federal government that warrant departure from federal precedent. Our examination of New Mexico law, however, does reveal distinctive characteristics that command our departure from federal law governing border checkpoint detentions. {15} In Gomez, we expanded the protection afforded New Mexico's motorists from unreasonable searches and seizures. See id. ¶ ¶ 36-44. The Gomez Court questioned whether we should adopt the federal automobile exception to the warrant requirement. See id. The Court recognized that this exception, which would allow law enforcement officials to search vehicles without warrants so long as they have probable cause, was based, in part, on the notion that a motorist has a lesser expectation of privacy in an automobile. See Gomez, 1997-NMSC-006, ¶ 37, 122 N.M. 777, 932 P.2d 1. In rejecting the federal automobile exception to the warrant requirement, this Court dismissed the notion that an individual lowers his expectation of privacy when he enters an automobile, and elected instead to provide motorists with a layer of protection from unreasonable searches and seizures that is unavailable at the federal level. Id. ¶ 38. Gomez confirms that New Mexico courts interpret Article II, Section 10 of the state constitution more broadly than its federal counterpart, and specifically applies that broader protection to motorists. The extra layer of protection from unreasonable searches and seizures involving automobiles is a distinct characteristic of New Mexico constitutional law. {16} In a series of pre- Gomez cases interpreting the Fourth Amendment, our Court of Appeals defined a routine border checkpoint in a way that permits less of an intrusion than we believe federal law allows. In Galloway, for example, we examined a border checkpoint stop at which the Border Patrol agent, after inquiring about the defendants' citizenship, proceeded to ask additional questions regarding their travel plans, and referred them to secondary. 116 N.M. at 9, 859 P.2d at 477. Unlike the Tenth Circuit, which considers questions regarding travel plans and the referral of a defendant from primary to secondary part of a routine border checkpoint stop that requires no suspicion of criminal activity, the Galloway Court sought to determine whether the agent had reasonable suspicion to prolong the detention at the primary area to ask about the nature of the trip and to refer the vehicle to the secondary area based on the answers he received. Id. See also Affsprung, 115 N.M. at 548-49, 854 P.2d at 875-76 (requiring reasonable suspicion to justify a Border Patrol agent's inquiry into the ownership of the defendant's vehicle and his travel plans); Estrada, 111 N.M. at 799, 810 P.2d at 818 ([I]f the issues of residence or citizenship are resolved at the primary area of the checkpoint, referral of a vehicle to the secondary area must be based on at least reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.); cf. State v. Guzman, 118 N.M. 113, 114-15, 879 P.2d 114, 115-16 (Ct.App.1994) (determining whether or not a Border Patrol agent's questions regarding the defendant's travel plans and vehicle ownership were supported by reasonable suspicion); State v. Porras-Fuerte, 119 N.M. 180, 184, 889 P.2d 215, 219 (Ct.App. 1994) (treating the second detention of a vehicle that had already left a border checkpoint as a secondary stop, and holding that reasonable suspicion remains the standard by which we judge these second stops.). Although Galloway, Affsprung, and Estrada conflict with the lesser degree of privacy that federal courts afford motorists and the prevailing Tenth Circuit approach to border checkpoints, these cases are consistent with the extra layer of protection that New Mexico offers its motorists. Therefore, in New Mexico, we continue to proscribe the prolongation of a border checkpoint stop once questions regarding citizenship and immigration status have been answered, unless the officer conducting the stop reasonably suspects the defendant of criminal activity. Traffic congestion may require the referral of a motorist from primary to secondary without offending this rule, see Estrada, 111 N.M. at 800, 810 P.2d at 819, however, no such congestion was present in this case. We now consider whether our state search and seizure jurisprudence applies to the case at bar.