Court Opinion

ID: 9469597
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:44:56.526243+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:28.304064
License: Public Domain

LIVELY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I am pleased to join in Judge Keith’s excellent analysis of the development of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence in the years since Hester was decided. However, I am writing separately because I also disagree with the majority on the basic question of whether the marijuana in the present case was found in an “open field” at all. There is no definition of “open fields” in Hester. The sketchy statement of facts in the Hester opinion does not mention locked gates or even fences, and there is no indication that the property was posted with “No Trespassing” signs. Most importantly, there is nothing in Hester which tells us whether the field which was searched was visible from a public road or other place where the officers had a right to be. It is undisputed that the Oliver field in question could not be seen from any surface location from which the public was not excluded. I read Justice Douglas’ opinion for a unanimous Supreme Court in Air Pollution Variance Board v. Western Alfalfa, 416 U.S. 861, 865, 94 S.Ct. 2114, 2115, 40 L.Ed.2d 607 (1974), as turning on this fact: “The field inspector was on respondent’s property but we are not advised that he was on premises from which the public was excluded.”
The evidence in the present case makes it clear that the public was excluded from the premises where the officers first viewed the field of marijuana. I find it surprising that the majority overlooks recent refinements of the “open fields” doctrine and is willing to rely so totally on a fact-bare opinion from the Prohibition Era, a period not known for requiring law enforcement officers to act with scrupulous regard for the constitutional rights of suspects.
In short, I believe Ray Oliver had done everything possible to establish his claim to a right of privacy in the back field of his farm. Because of his efforts to exclude uninvited visitors, and the location of the field, his claim of privacy was reasonable. The police would not have been frustrated by the requirement of a search warrant in this case. If their information from the informant was not sufficient to establish probable cause, as Judge Keith has pointed out, the Kentucky State Police could have observed and photographed the Oliver field *374from the air and included information thus gained in their affidavit for a warrant. There was no danger that the evidence would be lost by any delay incident to obtaining a warrant.