Court Opinion

ID: 9425479
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:14:51.217389+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:55.845683
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Marshall,
with whom Mr. Justice Douglas and Mr. Justice Brennan join, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent for the reasons stated in my opinion in United States v. Robinson, ante, p. 238. The facts show that after arresting petitioner Gustafson for driving without possession of an operator’s license, Officer Smith conducted a search of petitioner’s person in which he removed a Benson and Hedges cigarette box. The officer put petitioner in the back seat of the squad car and then opened the cigarette box, disclosing marihuana cigarettes. As my Brother Stewart indicates, ante, at 266 and this page, no challenge was made either here or below with respect to the lawfulness of Officer Smith’s decision to effect a full custodial arrest for this minor traffic offense. Whether or not it was lawful for the officer to have searched petitioner’s person and removed the cigarette package before placing petitioner in the squad car, see United States v. Robinson, ante, at 250-255 (Marshall, J., dissenting), there was no justification for his opening the package and looking inside.
There was no reason to believe, and Officer Smith did not in fact believe, that petitioner was a dangerous person or that the package contained a weapon. The package’s weight alone no doubt would have indicated that it did not contain a gun or knife. In any event, *268even were it possible that the package contained some sort of weapon — say a razor blade — there was no chance the petitioner could use it once it was in the officer’s hands. The opening of the package had no connection whatsoever with the protective purpose of the search.
The State argues, and the Florida Supreme Court found, see 258 So. 2d 1, 2 (1972), that Officer Smith had a reasonable suspicion petitioner was intoxicated, justifying searching for intoxicating drugs such as marihuana. Leaving aside the question whether the officer could search for intoxicants, absent probable cause that petitioner had committed an offense involving intoxication, I do not find sufficient evidence in this record to support the conclusion that Officer Smith even had a reasonable suspicion petitioner was intoxicated. To begin with, Officer Smith neither arrested petitioner for driving while intoxicated nor did he give petitioner a sobriety test. See Fla. Stat. Ann. §§ 322.261 and 322.262 (1968). Smith testified that petitioner did not have any trouble getting out of his car, did not have difficulty standing up, and did not slur his speech when answering the officer’s questions. Nor did the fact that petitioner’s car weaved across a lane justify such a suspicion. As Officer Smith testified, he did not arrest petitioner on a careless-driving-by-weaving charge because there was simply not enough evidence. If there was not enough evidence to justify a charge for the weaving itself, I find it hard to understand how there could be enough evidence to suspect that petitioner was intoxicated. Officer Smith testified that petitioner’s eyes looked bleary, but that was hardly surprising, since the arrest took place at 2 a. m.
The only need for a search in this case was to disarm petitioner to protect Officer Smith from harm while the two were together in the patrol car. The search con*269ducted by Officer Smith went far beyond what was reasonably necessary to achieve that end. It therefore fell outside the scope of a properly drawn “search incident to arrest” exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement. I would reverse the judgment of the Florida Supreme Court holding that the fruits of the search could be admitted at petitioner’s trial.