Court Opinion

ID: 9467020
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:35:54.370062+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:06.503931
License: Public Domain

THOMAS A. CLARK, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent from that portion of the opinion affirming the convictions based on Cole’s possession of the silencer and pen gun. His attache-gun case and hat containing the silencer and pen gun were found in the truck on the premises to be searched. They were not within the scope of the search warrant in my opinion.
It is my opinion that Napoli1 does not control here. There the search warrant was directed to the house and premises. We extended the meaning of “premises” to include a camper which was parked on the premises when the police arrived. Napoli was seen locking the camper door when the officers arrived. A search of the house did not uncover the LSD described in the warrant. A search of a secret compartment in the camper did. Here the warrant and facts are different. A limited part of the premises is described (the rear apartment), a specifically described vehicle, and two named individuals.. The majority extends Napoli and this more narrowly drawn warrant to support a search of a vehicle that is seen by the officers arriving on the premises as they approach, driven by a person not listed as the occupant of the premises in the warrant.
I agree with the majority that under Ybarra2 the police could not search Cole because “a warrant to search a place cannot normally be construed to authorize a search of each individual in that place.”3 And just as the person of the business visitor in Ybarra was not within the scope of a warrant authorizing the search of the “premises” of the tavern in that case, the person of Cole, who was not described in either the warrant or supporting affidavit (and whom the officers simply did not expect to find there) and whose truck was not the vehicle described in the warrant, is simply outside the scope of this warrant.
If the foregoing analysis is correct, I cannot understand why those Fourth Amendment considerations which are relevant to Cole’s person are any less relevant to his truck, or more particularly to those personal effects of his that were in the truck. This warrant no more authorized a search of Cole’s truck than it did of Cole. Cole’s truck was just as much a “visitor” on the scene as was Cole. If Cole was not personally within the scope of the warrant then I do not see how his effects were any more subject to search under that warrant when they arrived in precisely the same manner as he did.
A different result might be in order if Cole and his truck, were not observed arriving by the officers as all parties converged on the scene, and in this respect Napoli neither controls nor was wrongly decided. For purposes of construing the scope of a premises search warrant, it is much more reasonable to regard a car which is discovered for the first time already on the premises to be searched as a part of the premises, subject to search. The allegations in support of the issuance of a warrant might well justify the magistrate reasonably to intend, and the policeman reasonably to understand the magistrate to mean, a description of “premises” to include anything at the described location which is under the control or direction of the person whose effects are to be searched which might serve as a hiding place for the contraband sought. But this reasoning cannot apply to an outsider who shows up during the course of a search. In that case it cannot be said that anyone other than the executing offi*901eer has yet considered the advisability of searching this new suspect, or that anyone other than the executing officer will determine whether, in fact, he will be searched. To say in effect that the warrant’s use of the word “premises” alone suffices as a determination by the magistrate, resting on probable cause, that the warrant extend to any and all visitors found on the premises, is to stretch the word beyond its normal meaning, or, as discussed above, its reasonable interpretation. The use of the word “premises” alone does not, and should not, include visitors or their vehicles caught in the act of visiting.
The officers discovered, and seized, suspected drugs and a gun not involved as part of this case on appeal, which were in Cole’s truck and were plainly visible to the officers outside. There is not the slightest suggestion in this case, however, of any exigency that would dispense with the ordinary necessity of a warrant for the search of those effects for which the officers did indeed have probable cause to believe contained contraband. At the time of the seizure of the suspected drugs and handgun from the cab of Cole’s pickup he and the truck were in the complete custody and control of the officers. They were able to seek a warrant before searching the truck and its contents without risk to themselves or the evidence they hoped to find in the truck. They should have done so. Arkansas v. Sanders.4
It is for these reasons that I dissent.

. U. S. v. Napoli, 530 F.2d 1198 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 920, 97 S.Ct. 316, 50 L.Ed.2d 287 (1976).

. Ybarra v. Illinois, 444 U.S. 85, 100 S.Ct. 338, 62 L.Ed.2d 238 (1979).

. Arkansas v. Sanders, 442 U.S. 753, 99 S.Ct. 2586, 61 L.Ed.2d 235 (1979). In Sanders the police had probable cause to think Sanders’ luggage, in the trunk of a taxi in which he was riding, contained marijuana. Mr. Justice Powell, for the majority, wrote:
We conclude that the State has failed to carry its burden of demonstrating the need for warrantless searches of luggage properly taken from automobiles. A closed suitcase in the trunk of an automobile may be as mobile as the vehicle in which it rides. But as we noted in Chadwick, the exigency of mobility must be assessed at the point immediately before the search-after the police have seized the object to be searched and have it securely within their control. See 433 U.S. [1], at 13, 97 S.Ct. [2476], at 2484 [53 L.Ed.2d 538], Once police have seized a suitcase, as they did here, the extent of its mobility is in no way affected by the place from which it was taken. Accordingly as a general rule there is no greater need for warrantless searches of luggage taken from automobiles than of luggage taken from other places. [Footnotes omitted.]