Opinion ID: 2998600
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Entry into Sandoval-Vasquez’s Business

Text: Sandoval-Vasquez first contends the officers’ warrantless entry into his business violated the Fourth Amendment. As a result, he maintains, the district court should have granted his motion to suppress evidence seized after the officers entered the business as the fruit of an unlawful entry. See Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 484-87 No. 03-1238 5 (1963); United States v. Robeles-Ortega, 348 F.3d 679, 681 (7th Cir. 2003). The Fourth Amendment provides that “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” In addition to protecting private homes, the Fourth Amendment also affords protection to businesses and commercial facilities. Dow Chemical Co. v. United States, 476 U.S. 227, 235 (1986); Marshall v. Barlow’s, Inc., 436 U.S. 307, 312 (1978). In either case, “[t]he touchstone of Fourth Amendment analysis is whether a person has a ‘constitutionally protected reasonable expectation of privacy.’” California v. Ciraolo, 476 U.S. 207, 211 (1986) (quoting Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 360 (1967) (Harlan, J., concurring)). “What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection.” Katz, 389 U.S. at 351. Here, the government maintains that the officers’ entry into the business did not violate the Fourth Amendment, and we agree. As we have said before, “[a]n open gate invites entry.” United States v. Tolar, 268 F.3d 530, 532 (7th Cir. 2005). In Tolar, we held there was no violation of the Fourth Amendment when police officers entered an open business to ask the owner’s permission to conduct a search. Id. We noted that a chain link fence surrounding the property did not engender a reasonable expectation of privacy in items visible from beyond the fence. Id. As in Tolar, the officers in this case entered an open business to seek the owner’s permission to conduct a search, and nothing about the property asserted an expectation of privacy. During the hour before the officers’ entry, an officer had observed persons entering and leaving the building. Significantly, at the time of entry, the door through which customers entered was open, the garage door was open, and the establishment was still open for business. 6 No. 03-1238 That Sandoval-Vasquez’s business may have been in the process of closing does not help him, as the fact remains that the business was still open when the officers entered. Our decision in United States v. Swart, 679 F.2d 698 (7th Cir. 1982), therefore, does not assist Sandoval-Vasquez. There, we ruled that officers’ entry into a business they knew was closed violated the Fourth Amendment. In this case, however, the officers entered an open business. Sandoval-Vasquez also attempts to distinguish Tolar on the basis that the officers here entered the premises with their weapons drawn, yelling that they were police officers and ordering the occupants against a wall. The officers’ entry in Tolar, in contrast, was peaceful. Sandoval-Vasquez thus maintains that in addition to entering the business shortly before it closed, the officers’ manner of entry into his business rendered the entry unlawful. See Wilson v. Arkansas, 514 U.S. 927, 934 (1995) (holding that knockand-announce principle is an element of the Fourth Amendment reasonableness inquiry because “we have little doubt that the Framers of the Fourth Amendment thought that the method of an officer’s entry into a dwelling was among the factors to be considered in assessing the reasonableness of a search and seizure”). We agree with the district court that the officers’ manner of entry was not unreasonable. Before they entered, the officers knew that a van parked inside the premises contained a significant quantity of cocaine, which SandovalVasquez’s counsel acknowledged likely had a street value of at least several hundred thousand dollars. Even though the officers had not received information that anyone on the premises possessed a weapon, we do not think it was unreasonable for the officers to protect themselves and the persons inside by entering with a show of force. See United States v. Morton, 17 F.3d 911, 912-13 (6th Cir. 1994). Entering by announcing their status as police officers and with weapons drawn was a reasonable precaution to take in No. 03-1238 7 light of the large quantity of drugs at stake and no guarantee as to how the occupants might react.