Court Opinion

ID: 9723274
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:09:30.740286+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:46.489634
License: Public Domain

ABRAHAMSON, J.
(concurring). The majority opinion concludes that the search of the hank records was conducted pursuant to a valid warrant and therefore it need not reach the constitutional question of whether art. I, sec. 11 of the Wisconsin Constitution prohibits the inspection of a bank depositor’s records without a valid search warrant.
I think the majority goes at this issue backwards. The first issue to decide is whether bank depositors have a constitutionally protected interest in these bank records. If depositors have a constitutionally protected interest, they can object to the validity of a warrant; if they have no constitutionally protected interest, the bank must challenge the warrant, and the bank did not do so in the instant case.
The United States Supreme Court in United States v. Miller, 425 U.S. 435, 439, 440, 446 (1976), analyzed the issue in this way and concluded that depositors do not have a protected fourth amendment interest in their bank records:
“The Government contends that the Court of Appeals erred in three respects: (i) in finding that respondent had the Fourth Amendment interest necessary to entitle him to challenge the validity of the subpoenas duces tecum through his motion to suppress; (ii) in holding that the subpoenas were defective; and (iii) in determining that suppression of the evidence obtained was the appropriate remedy if a constitutional violation did take place.
“We find that there was no intrusion into any area in which respondent had a protected Fourth Amendment interest and that the District Court therefore correctly denied respondent’s motion to suppress. Because we reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals on that *420ground alone, we do not reach the Government’s latter two contentions. a
“In any event, for the reasons stated above, we hold that respondent lacks the requisite Fourth Amendment interest to challenge the validity of the subpoenas.9 [9 There is no occasion for us to address whether the subpoenas complied with the requirements outlined in Oklahoma Press Pub. Co. v. Walling, 327 U.S. 186 (1946). The banks upon which they were served did not contest their validity.] ”
I believe the state constitutional issue is properly before us; it has been briefed. We should decide the question now and settle the issue promptly for the proper administration of justice in this state.
Art. I, sec. 11, Wis. Const, provides:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated; and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.”
Although the wording of section 11 of article I is precisely that of the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution, our court has not construed the two provisions as congruent. The court has said only that art. I, sec. 11 is “substantially like” the fourth amendment and that the fourth amendment standards and principles are “generally applicable to the construction of art. I, sec. 11.” State v. Paszek, 50 Wis.2d 619, 624, 184 N.W.2d 836 (1971); State v. Beal, 40 Wis.2d 607, 612, 162 N.W.2d 640 (1968). Indeed in State v. Doe, 78 Wis.2d 161, 171, 172, 254 N.W.2d 210 (1977), we clearly stated that the rights of persons within Wisconsin may exceed the minimum safeguards secured to persons by the United States Constitution:
“Certainly, it is the prerogative of the State of Wisconsin to afford greater protection to the liberties of *421persons within its boundaries under the Wisconsin Constitution than is mandated by the United States Supreme Court under the Fourteenth Amendment. See William J. Brennan, Jr., State Constitutions and the Protection of Individual Rights, 90 Harv. L. Rev. 489 (January 1977). This court has never hesitated to do so. . . . tt
“This court has demonstrated that it will not be bound by the mínimums which are imposed by the Supreme Court of the United States if it is the judgment of this court that the Constitution of Wisconsin and the laws of this state require that greater protection of citizens’ liberties ought to be afforded.”
I would hold that each person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her bank statement and records which is protected under art. I, see. 11 of the Wisconsin Constitution. I would adopt the reasoning and language of Mr. Justice Mosk, who, writing for a unanimous California iSupreme Court, stated:
“It cannot be gainsaid that the customer of a bank expects that the documents, such as checks, which he transmits to the bank in the course of his business operations, will remain private, and that such an expectation is reasonable. The prosecution concedes as much, although it asserts that this expectation is not constitutionally cognizable. Representatives of several banks testified at the suppression hearing that information in their possession regarding a customer’s account is deemed by them to be confidential.
“. . . That the bank alters the form in which it records the information transmitted to it by the depositor to show the receipt and disbursement of money on a bank statement does not diminish the depositor’s anticipation of privacy in the matters which he confides to the bank. A bank customer’s reasonable expectation is that, absent compulsion by legal process, the matters he reveals to the bank will be utilized by the bank only for internal banking purposes. Thus, we hold petitioner had a reasonable expectation that the bank would maintain the confidentiality of those papers which originated with him in check form and of the bank statements into *422which a record of those same checks had been transformed pursuant to internal bank practice. 6(
“. . . The mere fact that the bank purports to own the records which it provided to the detective is not, in our view, determinative of the issue at stake. The disclosure by the depositor to the bank is made for the limited purpose of facilitating the conduct of his financial affairs; it seems evident that his expectation of privacy is not diminished by the bank’s retention of a record of such disclosures.
“. . . It is not the right of privacy of the bank but of the petitioner which is at issue, and thus it would be untenable to conclude that the bank, a neutral entity with no significant interest in the matter, may validly consent to an invasion of its depositors’ rights. . . .
“. . . For all practical purposes, the disclosure by individuals or business firms of their financial affairs to a bank is not entirely volitional, since it is impossible to participate in the economic life of contemporary society without maintaining a bank account. In the course of such dealings, a depositor reveals many aspects of his personal affairs, opinions, habits and associations. Indeed, the totality of bank records provides a virtual current biography. While we are concerned in the present case only with bank statements, the logical extension of the contention that the bank’s ownership of records permits free access to them by any police officer extends far beyond such statements to checks, savings, bonds, loan applications, loan guarantees, and all papers which the customer has supplied to the bank to facilitate the conduct of his financial affairs upon the reasonable assumption that the information would remain confidential. To permit a police officer access to these records merely upon his request, without any judicial control as to relevancy or other traditional requirements of legal process, and to allow the evidence to be used in any subsequent criminal prosecution against a defendant, opens the door to a vast and unlimited range of very real abuses of police power.
“Cases are legion that condemn violent searches and invasions of an individual’s right to the privacy of his dwelling. The imposition upon privacy, although perhaps *423not so dramatic, may be equally devastating when other methods are employed. Development of photocopying machines, electronic computers and other sophisticated instruments have accelerated the ability of government to intrude into areas which a person normally chooses to exclude from prying eyes and inquisitive minds. Consequently judicial interpretations of the reach of the constitutional protection of individual privacy must keep pace with the perils created by these new devices.” Burrows v. Superior Court, 13 Cal.3d 238, 243-245, 247, 248, 118 Cal. Rptr. 166, 529 P.2d 590 (1974) ; quoted by Justice Brennan in his dissent in United States v. Miller, 245 U.S. 435, 447 (1976).
I would thus conclude that the bank depositor’s records are protected by the Wisconsin Constitution from unlawful search and seizure.
I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice HEFFER-NAN joins in this concurring opinion.