Opinion ID: 729772
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Police Officers' Contact With The Exterior Of Luggage

Text: 13 The district court denied McDonald's suppression motion, ruling that the police officer's examination of the exterior of the luggage exposed on the overhead rack did not violate the defendant's constitutional rights. We review this decision for clear error, giv[ing] particular deference to the district court that had the opportunity to hear the testimony and observe the demeanor of the witnesses. United States v. James, 40 F.3d 850, 874 (7th Cir. 1994) (citations omitted), cert. denied, 115 S. Ct. 948, cert. denied, 115 S. Ct. 1160, cert. granted and judgment vacated on other grounds, 116 S. Ct. 664 (1995). 14 The Fourth Amendment provides that [t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause . . . . Thus, the Constitution protects against warrantless intrusions, but only where an individual has a legitimate expectation of privacy. Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 143 (1978). Government action amounts to a search when it infringes an expectation of privacy that society is prepared to accept as reasonable. United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 113 (1984); United States v. Myers, 46 F.3d 668, 669 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 116 S. Ct. 213 (1995). 15 The Supreme Court has affirmed that a person possesses a privacy interest in the contents of personal luggage that is protected by the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 707 (1983) (emphasis added) (citing United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1, 13 (1977)). 5 However, it is generally recognized that the privacy interest of people who are in transit [i.e. on a bus, train, or airplane] on 'public thoroughfares [is] substantially less than those that attach to a fixed dwelling.'  United States v. Rem, 984 F.2d 806 (7th Cir. 1993), cert. denied, 114 S. Ct. 300 (1993) (quoting United States v. Whitehead, 849 F.2d 849, 854 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 983 (1988) (other citations omitted)). 6 Moreover, [w]hat one knowingly exposes to the public . . . is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35, 41 (1988) (quoting Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351 (1967)). The question before the court therefore is whether McDonald had a reasonable expectation of privacy that her luggage, left exposed on an overhead rack of a Greyhound bus, would not be touched or felt by others. 16 In a factual circumstance similar to McDonald's case, the Sixth Circuit has held that passengers have an expectation of privacy in the contents of their luggage, but that expectation does not extend to the exterior of luggage placed on overhead racks because such items are accessible to others in the normal flow of traffic on the bus. United States v. Guzman, 75 F.3d 1090, 1095 (6th Cir. 1996); see also United States v. Gault, 92 F.3d 990, 991-92 (10th Cir.) (holding that no search of the defendant's bag occurred when a DEA agent, who was looking for evidence of drug trafficking on an Amtrak train, kicked and lifted the defendant's bag to determine its weight, and determined from the kicking and lifting that the bag was heavy, which in his experience was consistent with the presence of drugs), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 117 S.Ct. 321, 136 L.Ed.2d 236 (1996); United States v. Harvey, 961 F.2d 1361, 1364 (8th Cir.) (holding that [p]assengers have no objective, reasonable expectation that their baggage will never be moved once placed in an overhead compartment.), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 883 (1991); United States v. Lovell, 849 F.2d 910, 915 (5th Cir. 1988) (holding that DEA agents' touching and squeezing of the defendant's luggage on an airport baggage carousel in order to facilitate a canine sniff did not constitute a search because the defendant had no reasonable expectation that his luggage would not be moved or handled. His reasonable expectation of privacy with respect to his luggage--that the contents would not be exposed to view--was not compromised by the agents' actions.) (emphasis added); United States v. Viera, 644 F.2d 509, 510-11 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 867 (1981) (holding that external manipulation of luggage to facilitate a canine sniff does not constitute a search). 17 Given the unfortunate realities of today's world, where law enforcement authorities must combat a steady influx of illicit drugs, as well as guard against possible terrorist incidents accomplished with devices ranging from simple handguns to sophisticated bombs, it is not surprising that over the last few decades our society has accepted increased security measures (e.g., hand-held metal detectors used to scan one's torso) at many locations such as airports, courthouses, hospitals, and even schools. In light of these realities, we agree with other courts of appeal that have held that the reasonable expectation of privacy inherent in the contents of luggage is not compromised by a police officer's physical touching of the exterior of luggage left exposed in the overhead rack of a bus. 7 18 In the present case, McDonald placed her bags in an overhead rack on a common carrier that was accessible to other passengers, and where other passengers also stowed their luggage. It is likely that in retrieving or stowing their own bags, other passengers on the public transportation vehicle would have to move, touch, or push McDonald's bags, and would in all probability feel the outside of her bags in doing so. McDonald can thus be said to have knowingly and voluntarily exposed the exterior of her bags to being physically touched by other persons. In other words, she did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy that the exterior of her luggage would not be felt, handled, or manipulated by others. 19 Further, the type of investigation employed by Officer Cotton was tailored to reveal only limited information without displaying the contents of the bags to anyone. Specifically, as with the canine sniff employed by the police in Place, the physical touching and feeling of McDonald's soft-sided luggage by an experienced detective, who over the years had acquired extensive knowledge of illicit drug trafficking, was not likely to reveal much information beyond raising to a high degree the officers' suspicion that the bags contained drugs, specifically bricks of contraband. The officers in the instant case did not open McDonald's bags, and in fact, prior to McDonald's disclaiming ownership of the bags, the officers did not move the bags from the location where McDonald had placed them. Moreover, Detective Cotton, who at the time of the investigation had more than twenty-two years of police experience, testified at the suppression hearing that she was at the bus terminal for the express purpose of detecting illegal drug flow and had experience in detecting bricks by feeling the outside of bags. Thus, this type of search ensure[d] that [McDonald was] not subjected to the embarrassment and inconvenience entailed in less discriminate and more intrusive investigative methods. Place, 462 U.S. at 707. 20 We agree with the analyses provided by the Fifth and Sixth Circuits in cases analogous to the instant case before us. The Sixth Circuit in Guzman, 75 F.3d 1090, and the Fifth Circuit, in Lovell, 849 F.2d 910, and Vierra, 644 F.2d 509, each concluded that police officers' manipulation of the outside of luggage did not invade the owners' reasonable privacy interests. 8 As in those cases, the feeling and pressing of McDonald's bags that the police officers undertook in the present case was nothing more than McDonald might expect from others, bus employees as well as passengers on the bus, moving luggage to adjust, remove, or make room for their baggage. The dissent argues that Guzman, Lovell, and Vierra are distinguishable on the ground that they involved contact that was less obtrusive than that involved in the present case. 9 We disagree with the dissent's characterization of Detective Cotton's contact with McDonald's luggage as beyond the sort of occasional touching that a person expects hand luggage to endure in an overhead rack. Officer Cotton's touching of the luggage was no more intrusive than the now routine x-raying of all carry-on luggage at airports (and the increasingly routine x-raying of bags at public buildings), a technique that in a real sense allows one to see into the luggage without opening it. As the district court aptly observed, [a]ny person who has travelled on a common carrier knows that luggage placed in an overhead compartment is always at the mercy of all people who want to rearrange or move previously placed luggage in order to squeeze additional luggage into the compartment or remove previously placed luggage. Memorandum Entry at 5 n.5. 21 We hold that the officers' touching of the bags on the overhead rack did not constitute a search because McDonald did not have a legitimate expectation that her luggage left in such place would not be handled by others. 10 The district court therefore did not commit clear error in denying McDonald's motion to suppress the evidence.