Court Opinion

ID: 9551823
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:59:58.047273+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:24:45.774432
License: Public Domain

*322ELLETT, Justice
(concurring) :
I concur, but only under the duress of the erroneous holdings of cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. In remanding this case for a new trial, we do so with certainty that a burglar will be set free to prey again upon a law-abiding society — a society which seems to have scarcely any rights at all under the Constitution as now interpreted.
Whether or not the police should have had a search warrant before entering the truck to check the serial number of the rifle has absolutely nothing to do with the guilt or innocence of the appellant. There is no question whatsoever of his guilt. His fingerprints were found in the burglarized home, and the stolen rifle and tool box taken therefrom were locked in his truck. The appellant did not testify at his trial, and so the jury could hardly fail to declare that he was guilty of burglary under the facts as given to it.
This case is being reversed because the court allowed testimony concerning the stolen goods to be presented to the jury. In other words, the police officers had a rifle and tool box which were stolen in connection with a burglary, but under the holdings of the Great Court those officers could not say where they got them or even place them in evidence.
If the Great Court had not officiously and improperly arrogated unto itself the power to have its inferior courts supervise all state supreme courts, I would uphold the conviction in this case.
The weak crutch upon which the Great Court leans in its grab for powers which rightfully belong to the state courts is the language of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution.1 By some sophistry not understood by the framers of that Amendment nor by the judges of all courts for nearly a century after it was declared adopted, the Great Court now says that the prohibitions against the federal entity as contained in the first eight amendments to the Constitution are now applicable to the .various states composing the nation. The clause “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” as written in the so-called Fourteenth Amendment, now means, according to the Great Court, that each prohibition mentioned in the first eight amendments as limitations on the federal powers is likewise a limitation on each and every state of the union simply because it is included in the term “due process of law.”
Had the members of the Great Court read the first eight amendments carefully, they would have convinced themselves that due process of lazo meant something entire*323ly different from what they now say it means. All of the prohibitions against federal abuses are clearly set out in those eight amendments, and then in addition to those prohibitions, the Fifth Amendment contains the following clause: “No person shall be * * * deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” (Emphasis added.)
If due process meant what the Great Court now says it means, then why was it necessary to include the specific limitations on federal powers as contained in the first eight amendments? Why did not those amendments simply say, “No person shall be * * * deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” and leave it to the courts to prevent searches without warrants; to prevent an officer from questioning a suspected felon; to compel speedy trials; to require counsel for all persons accused of crime; etc.?
The reason is obvious. Due process does not mean at all what the Great Court now says it means. The term is defined in 16 Am.Jur.2d, Constitutional Law, § 546, as follows:
* * * It has been said that due process of law must be understood to mean law in the regular course of administration through courts of justice according to those rules and forms which have been established for the protection of private rights. * * * A general law administered in its legal course according to the form of procedure suitable and proper to the nature of the case, conformable to the fundamental rules of right and affecting all persons alike, is due process of law.
In the instant case the officer was not searching for anything. The objects were in plain view. The officer only needed a closer look to check the serial number on the rifle. It may be that he did wrong in taking the truck to the station and there getting inside of it. If he thereby committed a trespass, the courts are open to the appellant to recover such damages as he may have sustained.
There is no provision of statute or constitution which would prevent the truth from being told to a jury simply because the officer may have been overzealous in securing incriminating evidence against a criminal. It is only prevented by some poorly reasoned federal cases. Such a holding as we heré and now make is difficult for the law-abiding people of this nation to understand. Our courts now have less respect than they have had since the union was formed. The blame is not confined to those courts which deserve it. The state courts, like “old Dog Tray,” are taking a beating — not because of anything which we do, but rather like “old Dog Tray” because of the company we keep. Of necessity we must keep company with the federal courts. However, we would *324like to be able to cite some of the decisions of the Great Court for a principle of law other than as a means of setting free a convicted felon.
The prevailing opinion cites the case of Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564, 578-579 (1971), and that case is to be commended for showing an awareness on the part of some members of the Great Court of the error of their ways and of the mischief which they have wreaked by their poor decisions.
While our citizens are not safe either in their homes or on the streets of our cities, still the great concern of the Supreme Court of the United States seems to be for the criminal and his so-called constitutional rights rather than for the overridding problem of the protection of the innocent element of our society or the conviction of criminals pursuant to due process of law as administered by the state courts.

. As to the efficacy of that amendment, see my lonesome opinion in Dyett v. Turner, 20 Utah 2d 403, 439 P.2d 266 (1968).