Opinion ID: 797149
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Our Holding in Myers

Text: 15 We are compelled, at the outset, to clarify what we did and did not hold in Myers. Myers concerned a police officer's entry into an apartment in response to a report of possible domestic violence involving a person with a gun, and the subsequent arrest of the defendant because of the officer's suspicion that a crime was underway. We concluded that the officer was justified in entering the apartment but lacked probable cause to arrest the defendant once inside. Myers, 308 F.3d at 265. In reaching this conclusion, we painstakingly examined all of the circumstances within the officer's knowledge at the time of the arrest. We did not consider these circumstances in isolation, but necessarily measured them against the potential offenses for which the defendant could conceivably have been charged. We found that the circumstances surrounding the arrest were insufficient to justify a reasonable belief that any offense had been committed. Id. at 284 (Alarcon, J., dissenting) (The Majority has concluded that Officer Azzarano did not have probable cause to arrest Myers for any crime.). 16 One of the state-law crimes we considered was the misdemeanor offense of simple assault. In discussing that offense, we noted a Pennsylvania statute authorizing warrantless arrests for misdemeanors only when they are committed in the presence of the arresting officer or when specifically authorized by statute. Noting that the validity of an arrest is determined by the law of the state where the arrest occurred, id. at 255, we concluded that the officer's warrantless arrest for simple assault is not authorized under Pennsylvania law unless the record establishes that a simple assault occurred in his presence. Id. at 256 (emphasis added). It is important to note that we did not address the relationship between Pennsylvania law and the federal law of probable cause, and we certainly did not hold that the former dictated the latter. Indeed, we made it quite clear that the validity of an arrest under state law must never be confused or conflated with the Fourth Amendment concept of reasonableness, and that the validity of an arrest under state law is at most a factor that a court may consider in assessing the broader question of probable cause. 2 Cf. Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 38, 83 S.Ct. 1623, 10 L.Ed.2d 726 (1963) (plurality opinion) (considering whether arrest was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment notwithstanding its legality under state law). In conclusion, we held that the totality of the circumstances did not give rise to probable cause to believe that an assault had occurred at all, much less in the arresting officer's presence. Myers, 308 F.3d at 258 (noting that the arresting officer's testimony does not establish a reasonable belief that Myers had assaulted Bennett, and it certainly does not establish any assault in the officer's presence); see also id. at 262 ([T]he testimony does not support a finding that the officer had a reasonable belief that Myers had been involved in a physical altercation with Bennett. Likewise, the testimony does not corroborate that a `struggle occurred or that the officer thought one had.'). 17 We did not hold in Myers and, indeed, have never held that an arrest that is unlawful under state or local law is unreasonable per se under the Fourth Amendment. Yet, the District Court effectively applied just such a per se rule when it held that Santos's warrantless arrest for a misdemeanor that arguably did not occur in his presence violated 5 V.I.C. § 3562(1), the Virgin Islands's misdemeanor-presence statute, and was, therefore, unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. 18 A per se rule inappropriately draws federal courts into the enforcement of state and local law. By suppressing Laville's post-arrest statements because it found a violation of the Virgin Islands's misdemeanor-presence rule, the District Court was, in effect if not in fact, enforcing territorial criminal procedure, and doing so in a prosecution by the federal government for a violation of federal law. It is well understood, however, that [m]ere violation of a state statute does not infringe the federal Constitution, and that [s]tate rather than federal courts are the appropriate institutions to enforce state rules. Archie v. City of Racine, 847 F.2d 1211, 1216, 1217 (7th Cir.1988) (en banc); see also Johnson v. Fankell, 520 U.S. 911, 919, 117 S.Ct. 1800, 138 L.Ed.2d 108 (1997) (noting `the importance of state control of state judicial procedure' (quoting Henry M. Hart, Jr., The Relations Between State and Federal Law, 54 Colum. L.Rev. 489, 508 (1954))); Poulos v. State of New Hampshire, 345 U.S. 395, 409, 73 S.Ct. 760, 97 L.Ed. 1105 (1953) (stating, in the due process context, that official failures to act in accordance with state law, redressable by state judicial procedures, are not state acts violative of the Federal Constitution). A per se rule of reasonableness would inappropriately enlist federal courts in the enforcement of state rules of criminal and judicial procedure. 19 Application of a per se rule could also lead to the creation of different standards governing arrests made by peace officers of different states for the same federal offense. Conceivably, fifty different constitutional standards of arrest, each one dictated by a respective state's positive and decisional law, could result. What would be reasonable and constitutional in one state could be unreasonable and unconstitutional in another. Meanwhile, federal courts of appeals would be compelled to recognize—and, indeed, to perpetuate— such disparities among the states and territories within their jurisdictions. If, for instance, we were to uphold the District Court's application of a per se rule here, we might nevertheless conclude, in some future case, that an otherwise identical arrest occurring in New Jersey is reasonable and constitutional. Such a patchwork of federal constitutional standards, arising as it were from the individual legislative enactments of the various states and territories, is inconsistent with our single federal constitution. See Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 14 U.S. (1 Wheat.) 304, 347-48 (1816) (noting the importance, and even necessity of uniformity of decisions throughout the whole United States, upon all subjects within the purview of the constitution). 20 Moreover, a per se rule could well create disparity in the constitutionality of arrests performed by state and federal officers for the same offense within the same state or territory. It is easy to imagine a scenario in which officers of the VIPD and officers of the ICE, working on a joint law-enforcement detail, simultaneously approach a group of suspected illegal aliens under circumstances similar to those presented here. Acting on what they believe to be probable cause, a VIPD officer and an ICE officer make simultaneous, warrantless arrests. If we were to apply a per se rule, we would likely be compelled to find that the arrest made by the VIPD officer was unreasonable per se and, therefore, unconstitutional, whereas the identical arrest made by the ICE officer was reasonable and constitutional. The Fourth Amendment does not permit, much less require, any such thing. 21 By engrafting territorial procedural requirements onto the federal constitutional standards governing seizure, the District Court went beyond simply determining the reasonableness of Laville's arrest. Rather, the Court effectively required Santos to be certain that a misdemeanor had been committed, by virtue of having witnessed its commission, and to ensure that conviction was possible. A significant body of caselaw makes clear why any such requirements simply cannot be, and why a Fourth Amendment determination cannot turn on the exigencies of the law of a particular state or territory or an officer's knowledge of the elements of a particular offense and whether each element has been satisfied. The test is one of federal law, neither enlarged by what one state may have countenanced nor diminished by what another may have colorably suppressed. Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 223-24, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669 (1960). As the Supreme Court emphasized in Draper v. United States, there is a `difference between what is required to prove guilt in a criminal case and what is required to show probable cause for arrest or search.' 358 U.S. 307, 311-12, 79 S.Ct. 329, 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959) (quoting Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 173, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949)). And, as Judge Learned Hand recognized more than sixty years ago, the `reasonable cause' necessary to support an arrest cannot demand the same strictness of proof as the accused's guilt upon a trial, unless the powers of peace officers are to be so cut down that they cannot possibly perform their duties. United States v. Heitner, 149 F.2d 105, 106 (2d Cir.1945) (quoted in Draper, 358 U.S. at 312 n. 4, 79 S.Ct. 329); see also Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 396, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989) (stating that in determining whether use of force violates the Fourth Amendment, `reasonableness' . . . must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight). 22 And it is reasonableness that is the central inquiry under the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Williams, 417 F.3d 373, 376 (3d Cir.2005). [S]ufficient probability, not certainty, is the touchstone of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment. Hill v. California, 401 U.S. 797, 804, 91 S.Ct. 1106, 28 L.Ed.2d 484 (1971); see also Locke v. United States, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 339, 348, 3 L.Ed. 364 (1813) (recognizing that probable cause means less than evidence which would justify condemnation). Probable cause exists whenever reasonably trustworthy information or circumstances within an arresting officer's knowledge are sufficient to warrant a person of reasonable caution to conclude that an offense has been or is being committed by the person being arrested. Draper, 358 U.S. at 313, 79 S.Ct. 329; Myers, 308 F.3d at 255. 23