Opinion ID: 418796
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Three-Day Delay

Text: 17 We next must determine whether the fact that the packages could have been searched without a warrant at the time of their seizure means that they could be searched without a warrant some three days later at the government warehouse. We believe that the clear thrust of our precedent answers that question in the negative, and that nothing held or said in Ross leads to a different conclusion. 18 In United States v. Monclavo-Cruz, 662 F.2d 1285 (9th Cir.1981), an officer arrested a female passenger of an automobile and seized her purse, which was either in her hand, on her lap, or on the seat beside her. He did not search the purse immediately, but did so about an hour later in his office, where he had taken both the purse and its owner. We assumed that the initial seizure of the purse was lawful as incident to the owner's arrest, but held that the subsequent search was invalid for lack of a warrant. It made no difference, we said, that the officer was prevented from making the search at the time of the arrest because he believed it would have created a security risk. The fact that an officer is prevented from conducting a [permissible search at the time of the arrest] is not a sufficient reason to justify a search an hour later at the station. The protection rationale for the search no longer applies. Id. at 1288. 19 In United States v. Burnette, 698 F.2d 1038 (9th Cir.1983), police officers arrested the defendant on probable cause and seized the purse she was carrying. They conducted a cursory search of the purse at that time, and subsequently conducted a more thorough warrantless search at the police station. We held that the search at the station did not violate the Fourth Amendment because the initial search, properly conducted at the time of the arrest, diminished or destroyed any privacy interest the owner had in the contents of the purse. As long as the purse thereafter remained in police possession, it could be searched without a warrant. Id. at 1049-50. We pointed out, however, that [w]here such a container is not searched immediately, ... but is instead taken to the police station and searched later, a warrant is required. United States v. Monclavo-Cruz, 662 F.2d 1285 (9th Cir.1981). Id. 698 F.2d at 1049. Moreover, the dissent in Burnette was based on the sole ground that the record did not support the finding that the officers had in fact searched the purse at the time of the arrest. See id. at 1052-56 (Norris, J., dissenting). Neither the majority's reference to Monclavo-Cruz nor the dissent would make much sense if a warrantless station-house search were rendered lawful by the fact that an earlier search could have been made lawfully without a warrant. 20 The starting premise for both cases is that warrantless searches are per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment, subject only to narrowly prescribed exceptions confined to the circumstances that gave rise to those exceptions. Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 455, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 2032, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971); see United States v. Martin, 693 F.2d 77, 78 (9th Cir.1982) (per curiam). Both Monclavo-Cruz and Burnette dealt with searches of items initially subject to search incident to a lawful arrest. There was no reason to stretch that exception to the warrant requirement so as to permit a later search at the police station, where there is no longer any danger that the arrestee might gain access to the property to seize a weapon or destroy evidence. United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. at 15, 97 S.Ct. at 2485. In the present case, however, the containers were subject to initial search as part of the automobile exception to the warrant requirement, under the holding of Ross. We must therefore examine Ross further to determine whether anything in its rationale supports the warrantless searches conducted in this case. 21 The automobile exception permits a warrantless search not only at the spot where the automobile is stopped but also at the police station soon thereafter if the vehicle is impounded. Ross, 102 S.Ct. at 2163 n. 9 (citing Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 52, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 1981, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970), and Texas v. White, 423 U.S. 67, 96 S.Ct. 304, 46 L.Ed.2d 209 (1975)). This extension of the automobile exception resulted, however, from the practical difficulties associated with the detention of an automobile on a public highway and the possible dangers of a search there. See Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. at 52, 90 S.Ct. at 1981; Ross, 102 S.Ct. at 2163 n. 9, 2166 n. 18. Those considerations do not apply to a container that may be removed from the vehicle and secured by the police, as the Supreme Court held in Chadwick, 433 U.S. at 13 n. 7, 97 S.Ct. at 2484 n. 7. 22 Ross allows the police to search, either in the automobile or soon thereafter at the station, all containers, closed or open, which there is probable cause to believe may conceal the proper object of the search. Ross does not, however, overrule the holding of Arkansas v. Sanders, 442 U.S. 753, 99 S.Ct. 2586, 61 L.Ed.2d 235 (1979), that a warrant is needed for search of a closed container in the hands of the police that is not part of an automobile search itself. We therefore find nothing in Ross's expansion of the automobile search exception to justify extending it to containers no longer in an automobile and secured by the police for three days prior to a warrantless search. 4 23 Moreover, nothing in the Ross decision so destroys the expectation of privacy in a container subject to an automobile search that the container is thereafter subject to search without a warrant. First, Ross allows the police to search all containers only if they have probable cause to search the vehicle. If there is probable cause to search only a container, the automobile exception does not apply. Ross did not overrule Chadwick or the holding in Sanders. See Ross, 102 S.Ct. at 2168 (quoting Robbins v. California, 453 U.S. at 435, 101 S.Ct. at 2850 (Powell, J., concurring)); Ross, 102 S.Ct. at 2172. Chadwick holds that placing a package in an automobile does not destroy the expectation of privacy in that package. Second, our decision in Burnette would never have reached the merits if the fact that the police could have (but did not) search a container forever destroys the expectation of privacy in its contents. 24 We again emphasize the factual basis of our holding. Customs officers had probable cause to believe the two trucks contained contraband. Under Ross, they could have immediately inspected the packages as part of the inspection of the trucks. The officers also could have searched the trucks and packages soon thereafter at their headquarters. Instead, they chose to seize and impound the packages. They stored the packages for three days and then opened them without a warrant. 25 The officers could have easily obtained a warrant at any time during those three days. Exceptions to the warrant requirement are limited and narrowly prescribed. Neither basis for the automobile exception--the impracticality of serving a warrant for the transportation of contraband, see Ross, 102 S.Ct. at 2163, and the special mobility of automobiles, id. at 2165--applies to packages secured for three days at a government warehouse.