Court Opinion

ID: 9575934
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:18:42.862482+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:49:43.964926
License: Public Domain

HOWE, Associate Chief Justice
(dissenting):
I find it unnecessary to determine whether the roadblock and Sims’ subsequent consent to the search were invalid. Assuming that to be true, I cannot agree that evidence seized from Sims’ automobile in violation of article I, section 14 of the Utah Constitution is inadmissible in a proceeding before the Tax Commission under the Utah Illegal Drug Stamp Tax Act. The majority extends the state exclusionary rule to proceedings under the Illegal Drug Stamp Tax Act, based on the reasoning that illegally obtained evidence should be excluded from a civil proceeding (1) if the proceeding is in effect criminal or (2) if the exclusion is necessary to deter future unconstitutional searches. In my opinion, neither of those two reasons supports the exclusion of the evidence in the instant case.
The state exclusionary rule came into existence on the vote of a majority of this court in State v. Larocco, 794 P.2d 460 (Utah 1990) (Justice Durham wrote for the court, Justice Zimmerman concurred, and Justice Stewart concurred in the result). Chief Justice Hall and this writer dissented from the application of the rule to the facts of that case. Subsequently, in State v. Thompson, 810 P.2d 415 (Utah 1991), this court applied the rule to exclude bank records of a criminal defendant. (Justice Stewart dissented.) As the majority opinion in the instant ease points out, the Larocco decision expressly reserved the question of the nature and scope of the exclusionary rule under the Utah Constitution, holding only that it exists. When and under what conditions it is to be applied was left to be determined in future cases. In view of that reservation, I deem it very important in the instant case that we not extend the rule further than the reasoning and purpose upon which it rests.
The majority opinion correctly notes that in recent years there has been a trend in federal courts to limit the application of the federal exclusionary rule. See United States v. Janis, 428 U.S. 433, 96 S.Ct. 3021, 49 L.Ed.2d 1046 (1976), for a discussion of the criticism which has been leveled at that rule by writers and jurists. Indeed, Justice Blackmun observed that the evolution of the exclusionary rule has been marked by sharp divisions in the Supreme Court. Janis, 428 U.S. at 446, 96 S.Ct. at 3028, 49 L.Ed.2d at 1056. I therefore believe that we should exercise caution in extending the *17exclusionary rule to civil cases, particularly where it will have no deterrent effect.
The majority opinion observes that only a few state courts have explicitly considered the question of whether their state exclusionary rule extends to civil proceedings. Of those few courts, most have not applied it to civil proceedings. The majority suggests that only in Oregon, where the purpose of the state exclusionary rule has been characterized as the restoration of a defendant’s personal right rather than the deterrence of unlawful police conduct, and Alaska, where a state policy of “fundamental fairness” was recognized, has the rule been invoked in civil proceedings. There is no counterpart right or policy in Utah.
I
I cannot agree with the majority that civil proceedings under the Utah Illegal Drug Stamp Tax Act are in effect criminal and thus the exclusionary rule should apply. The majority relies upon One 1958 Plymouth Sedan v. Pennsylvania, 380 U.S. 693, 85 S.Ct. 1246, 14 L.Ed.2d 170 (1965), where the Supreme Court applied the rule in a proceeding for forfeiture of an article used in violation of the criminal law. The Court held that the forfeiture proceeding was quasi-criminal in character. However, the instant case is not a forfeiture proceeding, but a civil tax liability proceeding before the Tax Commission. A subsequent case, United States v. Janis, 428 U.S. 433, 447, 96 S.Ct. 3021, 3028-29, 49 L.Ed.2d 1046, 1056-57 (1976) (not cited in the majority opinion), severely limited One 1958 Plymouth Sedan to its facts. The Court held that evidence unlawfully seized by local police officers investigating local wagering offenses was not barred from use in a subsequent federal civil tax proceeding. The Court left open the issue of whether the exclusionary rule should be applied in a civil proceeding involving an intrasovereign violation, i.e., where the agency that effected the unlawful arrest was responsible for instituting the subsequent civil action. Later, in Immigration and Naturalization Serv. v. Lopez-Mendoza, 468 U.S. 1032, 104 S.Ct. 3479, 82 L.Ed.2d 778 (1984) (discussed infra in part II), the Court refused to apply the exclusionary rule even though there had been an intrasovereign violation. It is significant that in Janis, the Court could have decided the case on the ground that the civil tax proceeding brought there to collect taxes on illegal wagering was quasi-criminal in nature. But it did not do so. Instead, the Janis Court acknowledged One 1958 Plymouth Sedan in a footnote but distinguished it on the ground that the forfeiture of items used in the commission of a crime is “clearly a penalty for the criminal offense.” Janis, 428 U.S. at 447 n. 17, 96 S.Ct. at 3029 n. 17, 49 L.Ed.2d at 1057 n. 17. The Court noted that it had “never applied the exclusionary rule to exclude evidence from a civil proceeding, federal or state.” Janis, 428 U.S. at 447, 96 S.Ct. at 3029, 49 L.Ed.2d at 1057. To this day, the Supreme Court has not held that a tax collection proceeding was quasi-criminal in nature and applied the exclusionary rule under One 1958 Plymouth Sedan.
Forfeiture proceedings are therefore unique in their status as quasi-criminal, and such status should not be extended to civil tax proceedings. Governments levy taxes on a variety of legal activities as well as illegal activities. The nature of the proceeding to impose taxes does not change when the activity taxed is illegal. Indeed, the Internal Revenue Code imposes taxes on bootlegging, gambling, extortion, and fraud. The majority attempts to draw strength for its position by referring to the 100 percent penalty imposed upon violators of the Illegal Drug Tax Stamp Act. However, although heavy penalties are customarily found in federal and state tax law, no court has held or suggested that the imposition of heavy penalties transforms a tax collection proceeding into a quasi-criminal proceeding. The taxpayer may feel that he or she is being punished, but the exclusionary rule should not be used to remedy unjust taxation. The legislature, in enacting the Illegal Drug Stamp Tax Act, clearly intended for the 100 percent penalty to be a civil penalty. It is assessed and collected as part of the tax. The Act does, however, impose a criminal penalty in addition. A *18dealer distributing or possessing drugs without affixing the appropriate stamps is guilty of a third degree felony and is subject to a fine of not more than $10,000. Thus, the legislature prescribed separate civil and criminal penalties, which distinction we should observe.
The majority opinion concedes that forfeiture proceedings are frequently cited as the prototype of quasi-criminal proceedings but states that “other kinds of civil proceedings” have been characterized as quasi-criminal. However, none of the cases cited and relied upon by the majority as being quasi-criminal are civil tax proceedings except United States v. Blank, 261 F.Supp. 180 (N.D.Ohio 1966). Blank was decided years before Janis clearly limited One 1958 Plymouth Sedan to forfeiture proceedings. Thus, it is clear that Blank is not good law in light of the subsequent case of Janis. The Second Circuit, in Tirado v. Commissioner, 689 F.2d 307 (2d Cir. 1982), noted that “in a handful of cases” decided just after the Supreme Court’s application of the exclusionary rule to forfeiture proceedings in One 1958 Plymouth Sedan, a few courts applied the exclusionary rule in civil proceedings by analogy to criminal proceedings. Tirado, 689 F.2d at 311 n. 5. “These cases stretched the ‘quasi-criminal’ rationale used in the forfeiture cases to reach” certain civil proceedings, wrote the Second Circuit. Id. Among the cases referred to are Blank and Powell v. Zuckert, 366 F.2d 634 (D.C.Cir.1966). Those two cases and Iowa v. Union Asphalt and Road Oils, Inc., 281 F.Supp. 391 (S.D.Iowa 1968), which are all relied upon in the majority opinion, were decided after One 1958 Plymouth Sedan but before its application was severely limited by Janis. Thus, their value as precedent is questionable.
The reasoning of the majority is that this tax proceeding is quasi-criminal and that Sims should be accorded the benefit of the exclusionary rule, which was developed to be applied in criminal cases. Perhaps, then, other rights accorded a criminal defendant should be extended to Sims as well. The Tax Commission would then be transformed into a criminal tribunal under which Sims ought to have the right to a jury trial, the right to counsel, and other protections afforded to an accused. Such a conclusion would be impractical and absurd.
II
The second reason offered in the majority opinion for applying the exclusionary rule in this case, i.e., to deter future unlawful seizures, is misplaced. The exclusionary rule is a creature of federal case law. In that body of law, it has been consistently held that the exclusionary rule is “a judicially created remedy designed to safeguard fourth amendment rights generally through its deterrent effect, rather than a personal constitutional right of the party aggrieved.” United States v. Janis, 428 U.S. 433, 446, 96 S.Ct. 3021, 3028, 49 L.Ed.2d 1046, 1056 (1976) (quoting United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 348, 94 S.Ct. 613, 620, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974)). Since it is a remedy and not a right, “application of the rule has been restricted to those areas where its remedial objectives are thought most efficaciously served.” Id. 428 U.S. at 447, 96 S.Ct. at 3028, 49 L.Ed.2d at 1056-57 (quoting Calandra, 414 U.S. at 348, 94 S.Ct. at 620). The exclusionary rule is strong medicine which prevents the enforcement of admittedly valid laws and should be taken no more often than is necessary to “combat the disease.” Stone v. Powell, 428 U.S. 465, 487 n. 24, 96 S.Ct. 3037, 3049 n. 24, 49 L.Ed.2d 1067 n. 24, 1083-84 n. 24 (1976) (quoting Amsterdam, Search, Seizure, and section 2255: A Comment, 112 U.Pa.L.Rev. 378, 388-89 (1964)); see also Janis, 428 U.S. at 447, 454, 96 S.Ct. at 3028-29, 3032, 49 L.Ed.2d at 1056-57, 1060-61. The prime, if not the sole, purpose of the exclusionary rule is to “deter future unlawful police conduct.” Janis, 428 U.S. at 446, 96 S.Ct. at 3028, 49 L.Ed.2d at 1056 (quoting Calandra, 414 U.S. at 347, 94 S.Ct. at 619). Indeed, one reason the exclusionary rule is generally not applicable in civil cases is that the parties to the action did not control the search and application of the rule would not discourage the parties from searching unlawfully.
*19The Supreme Court in Janis outlined a framework for deciding the type of proceeding in which application of the exclusionary rule is appropriate. 428 U.S. at 448-54, 96 S.Ct. at 3029-32, 49 L.Ed.2d at 1057-61. The Court stated that the likely social benefits of excluding unlawfully seized evidence should be weighed against the likely costs. On the benefit side of the balance, the prime purpose of the rule is to deter future unlawful police conduct. On the cost side, there is the loss of often probative evidence, which may result in a wrongdoer’s going unpunished. Subsequently, in Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Lopez-Mendoza, 468 U.S. 1032, 104 S.Ct. 3479, 82 L.Ed.2d 778 (1984), the Court summarized why it had refused to apply the exclusionary rule in Janis, which was a civil proceeding to impose and collect taxes on illegal bookmaking:
Two factors in Janis suggested that the deterrence value of the exclusionary rule in the context of that case was slight. First, the state law enforcement officials were already “punished” by the exclusion of the evidence in the state criminal trial as a result of the same conduct. Second, the evidence was also excludable in any federal criminal trial that might be held. Both factors suggested that further application of the exclusionary rule in the federal civil proceeding would contribute little more to the deterrence of unlawful conduct by state officials. On the cost side of the balance, Janis focused simply on the loss of “concededly relevant and reliable evidence.” The Court concluded that, on balance, this cost outweighed the likely social benefits achievable through application of the exclusionary rule in the federal civil proceeding.
Id. 468 U.S. at 1042, 104 S.Ct. at 3485, 82 L.Ed.2d at 788 (quoting Janis, 428 U.S. 433, 447-48, 96 S.Ct. at 3029).
In refusing to apply the exclusionary rule in the tax proceedings in Janis, the Court properly noted:
There comes a point at which courts, consistent with their duty to administer the law, cannot continue to create barriers to law enforcement in the pursuit of a supervisory role that is properly the duty of the Executive and Legislative branches.
Janis, 428 U.S. at 459, 96 S.Ct. at 3034, 49 L.Ed.2d at 1064.
In Lopez-Mendoza, the Court declined to apply the exclusionary rule in a civil deportation hearing where an alien admitted his unlawful presence in this country after an allegedly unlawful arrest by INS agents, making it an intrasovereign violation. Nevertheless, the Court held that “the Janis balance between costs and benefits comes out against applying the exclusionary rule in civil deportation hearings held by the INS.” Lopez-Mendoza, 468 U.S. at 1050, 104 S.Ct. at 3489, 82 L.Ed.2d at 793. It was observed that the INS had “already taken sensible and reasonable steps to deter Fourth Amendment violations by' its officers,” making the likely additional deterrent value of the exclusionary rule small. Id. “The costs of applying the exclusionary rule in the context of civil deportation hearings are high,” the Court noted, because the courts would be compelled to release from custody persons who would then immediately resume their commission of a crime through their continuing unlawful presence in this country. Id.
In a case decided after Janis, the Second Circuit held in Tirado v. Commissioner, 689 F.2d 307 (2d Cir.1982), that evidence allegedly seized unlawfully by federal narcotics agents for use in a narcotics prosecution was not barred by the exclusionary rule in a subsequent federal civil tax proceeding by the IRS. The court concluded that the deterrent value of the exclusionary rule would not be served by applying the rule to exclude evidence from a proceeding where the evidence was not seized with the participation or collusion of, or in contemplation of use by, the IRS agents responsible for the proceeding in which the evidence is presented. Id. at 315. The court noted that the exclusionary rule “is calculated to prevent, not to repair,” and that it should not be applied in cases where there is only a remote prospect of deterrence. Id. at 310 (citing Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 217, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 1444, 4 *20L.Ed.2d 1669 (1960)). “Since use of the exclusionary rule impairs the search for truth even as it aids observance of constitutional limitations, standards for use of the rule must balance public needs against the claims of individual liberty.” Id. at 310. In refusing to apply the exclusionary rule in the tax deficiency proceedings brought against the defendant by the IRS, the court stated that the deterrent purpose of the rule would not be served by suppressing the seized evidence that formed the basis of the tax deficiency notice. Said the court:
Tax deficiency proceedings are too remote from the “zone of primary interest” of the narcotics agents who made the seizures in Tirado’s apartment. As in Janis, it is not reasonable to suppose that a rule barring use of the evidence in a civil tax proceeding would have materially influenced those agents in their decision whether to make the particular seizures.... Nor would agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency be likely to harbor a general motivating interest in assisting the enforcement of civil tax obligations.
Id. at 314.
As is pointed out in footnote 1 in the majority opinion, Sims was charged with the crime of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute for value. The trial court convicted him, but the court of appeals overturned that conviction after determining that evidence of the drugs seized from his automobile should have been suppressed. State v. Sims, 808 P.2d 141 (Utah Ct.App.1991). Thus, a healthy dose of deterrent has already been administered to the officers participating in the roadblock. To administer a further dose to the Tax Commission is quite unfounded. The Tax Commission is charged by the Utah Constitution with administering the tax laws of this state. Neither the Commission nor any of its officers or employees originated or participated in any way in the roadblock. Application of the exclusionary rule in this case will not serve any deterrent purpose since the Commission, its officers, and its employees are blameless in any violation there may have been of Sims’ constitutional rights. Like the officers who illegally seized evidence in Janis, in Lopez-Mendoza, and in Tirado, the officers here, who were members of the Juab County Sheriff’s force and members of the Utah Highway Patrol, did not have in mind aiding or assisting the Tax Commission in collecting taxes when they set up the roadblock which resulted in Sims’ apprehension. That thought was not in their “zone of primary interests.” Unless the exclusionary rule under our state constitution is to be applied blindly in every case where there is a violation, it has no place in the instant case, where no deterrent effect will be felt.
Recently the Supreme Court of Iowa, in Westendorf v. Iowa Department of Transportation, 400 N.W.2d 553 (Iowa 1987), refused to impose the exclusionary rule in a driver’s license revocation proceeding because it “would have little force as a deterrent of unlawful police action because the [driver’s license] department does not control the actions of local police officers.” Id. at 557. That court, relying upon the Supreme Court’s decisions in Janis and in Lopez-Mendoza, applied a balancing test.1 Similarly, the Supreme Court of New Jersey, in Delguidice v. New Jersey Racing Commission, 100 N.J. 79, 494 A.2d 1007 (1985), held that a finding of entrapment and the resulting dismissal of criminal proceedings against a jockey did not prevent use of the incriminating evidence in the jockey’s licensing hearing before the racing commission. The balancing test of Janis and Lopez-Mendoza was employed. Because the illegally obtained evidence had been suppressed in the criminal proceedings, the desired deterrent had already been realized, and extending the exclusionary sanction to the subsequent licensing proceeding would have no deterrent effect.
There are significant parallels in the Iowa case, the New Jersey case, and the *21instant case. First, in all three cases, the subsequent civil proceedings arose out of the same incidents as the criminal proceedings. In the criminal proceedings, the evidence was suppressed. Second, in the subsequent civil proceedings, the defendants were faced with heavy consequences. Sims faces a substantial tax'and penalty. In the Iowa case, the defendant faced the loss of his driver’s license, which usually is a more severe consequence than a short jail term or a fine imposed for driving under the influence. In the New Jersey case, the jockey faced the loss of his license that enabled him to earn his living. In all three cases, the tax commission, the driver’s license department, and the racing commission, respectively, did not direct, authorize, or in any way control the officers’ actions. Consequently, application of the exclusionary rule in the civil proceeding would serve no purpose.
The majority opinion does not conduct any kind of a balancing test to determine whether application of the exclusionary rule is appropriate in this case. No mention is even made of the high cost of invoking the rule, viz., Sims escapes criminal conviction and all tax and penalties. Indeed, the only justification offered is that law enforcement entities have a “financial motivation” for conducting illegal searches since Utah law provides that resulting revenue will be shared with the agency conducting the search. Utah Code Ann. § 59-19-105(6). However, the majority concedes that this provision did not become effective until nine months after the search of Sims’ automobile. Therefore, it is clear that in the instant case, no part of the tax or penalty imposed on Sims will find its way back to Juab County, where the roadblock occurred. The officers here did not act under any financial incentive.
In summary, the majority, in applying article I, section 14 of the Utah Constitution, goes further than any case of the United States Supreme Court in enforcing Fourth Amendment rights. The majority pushes the exclusionary rule into the area of civil tax law, where few courts, if any, federal or state, have ever trod. The majority applies the exclusionary rule as if it were a constitutional right and completely overlooks the deterrent effect of the exclusionary rule in the overturning of Sims’ criminal conviction. Applying the rule against the Tax Commission will serve no deterrent purpose.
I would affirm the decision of the Commission.
HALL, C.J., concurs in the dissenting opinion of HOWE, Associate C.J.

. Subsequently, the Iowa legislature enacted a statute that extended the exclusionary rule to driver’s license revocation proceedings. See Brownsberger v. Department of Transp., Motor Vehicle Div., 460 N.W.2d 449 (Iowa 1990).