Court Opinion

ID: 9775623
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:05:18.602604+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:29.700145
License: Public Domain

MORGAN, Judge
(concurring).
In his Dissenting Opinion, Judge Seiler states that : “The United States Supreme Court has ruled invalid a search and seizure which closely resembles the facts here, but which is not discussed by the principal opinion. * * * The factual similarity between Vale [Vale v. Louisiana, 399 U.S. 30, 90 S.Ct. 1969, 26 L.Ed.2d 409 (1970)] and the case at bar leaves little room for doubt that it is controlling here.”
It is respectfully suggested that such statements are ill-founded in view of the following excerpt from the Vale case (l. c. 35, 90 S.Ct. 1972): “There is no suggestion that anyone consented to the search. Cf. Zap v. United States, 328 U.S. 624, 628, 66 S.Ct. 1277, 1279, 90 L.Ed. 1477. The officers were not responding to an emergency. United States v. Jeffers, supra, 342 U.S. at 52, 72 S.Ct. at 95; McDonald v. United States, supra, 335 U.S. at 454, 69 S.Ct. at 192. They were not in hot pursuit of a fleeing felon. Warden v. Hayden, 387 U. S. 294, 298-299, 87 S.Ct. 1642, 1645-1646, 18 L.Ed.2d 782; Chapman v. United States, 365 U.S. 610, 615, 81 S.Ct. 776, 779, 5 L.Ed.2d 828; Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 15, 68 S.Ct. 367, 369, 92 L.Ed. 436. The goods ultimately seized were not in the process of destruction. Schmerber v. California, 384 U.S. 757, 770-771, 86 S. Ct. 1826, 1835-1836, 16 L.Ed.2d 908; United States v. Jeffers, supra; McDonald v. United States, supra, 335 U.S. at 455, 69 S.Ct. at 193. Nor were they about to be removed from the jurisdiction. Chapman v. United States, supra; Johnson v. United States, supra.”
Two factors of interest here were not present in the Vale case: (1) “The officers were not responding to an emergency.”; and, (2) “Nor were they [the drugs] about to be removed from the jurisdiction.” Both factors are present in the instant case, which should make it readily distinguishable from the Vale case.
I concur in the principal opinion.