Court Opinion

ID: 9486317
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:44:19.488875+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:38.634552
License: Public Domain

TACHA, Circuit Judge,
dissenting in part and concurring in the judgment.
I concur in the judgment affirming the district court’s denial of defendant’s motion to suppress evidence obtained in his cabin. I write separately, however, because I cannot endorse the sweeping principle outlined by the majority in Part I.A. of its opinion.
In Part I.A. the majority enunciates the principle that the use of the term “premises” in a warrant with only a description of a tract of land does not bring a residence on that land within the scope of the warrant. Such a general rule is not justified under the Fourth Amendment.
Both the Eighth and the Ninth circuits have held, contrary to the majority’s holding in Part I.A., that the term “premises” should generally be construed to include a residence. United States v. Williams, 687 F.2d 290, 293 (9th Cir.1982); United States v. Meyer, 417 F.2d 1020, 1023 (8th Cir.1969) (focusing on the Black’s Law Dictionary (4th ed. 1957) definition of “premises” as “[l]ands and tenements; an estate; land and buildings thereon”1). I would not go so far as to say that this should be the rule in all cases. However, whether the term “premises” includes a residence on land described in a warrant at the very least should be a case-by-case inquiry.
As the majority points out, the Supreme Court has said:
The manifest purpose of [the] particularity requirement [of the warrant clause of the Fourth Amendment] was to prevent general searches. By limiting the authorization to search to the specific areas ..., the requirement ensures that the search will be carefully tailored to its justifications, and will not take on the character of the wide-ranging exploratory searches the Framers intended to prohibit.
Maryland v. Garrison, 480 U.S. 79, 84, 107 S.Ct. 1013, 1016, 94 L.Ed.2d 72 (1987). Consistent with this purpose, there will certainly be situations where it is clear, though only the generalized term “premises” is used in a warrant, that the magistrate intended the scope of a search to include a residence and that from the surrounding circumstances the officers executing the warrant knew the intended scope and were therefore sufficiently guided by the warrant. See Williams, 687 F.2d at 293 (focusing on the intent of the magistrate to include buildings in the term “premises”); Meyer, 417 F.2d at 1023 (“It is particularly clear here that the word premises was used in the warrant to include ... [the] buildings standing upon the land, since many of the items sought ... would in all likelihood be found only within the confines of a building.”). In such a situation, so long as there is sufficient probable cause for a search of a residence as well as land, no Fourth Amendment problem inheres. Certainly the better practice is to describe specifically in the warrant any residence or other building to be searched on a premises. However, I am not prepared to say that this is a bright-line requirement.
Applying these principles, I would hold that in this case the term “premises” in the *1403warrant should be construed to include the defendant’s cabin. The record indicates that this is what both the magistrate and the officers who applied for and executed the warrant intended. I note especially that “Attachment ‘C’ ” to the warrant indicating items to be searched for includes items that clearly would only be found indoors — e.g. drug records, “large amounts of currency, financial instruments, precious metals, jewelry and other items of value and/or proceeds of drug transactions.” Further, the affidavit of the officers, while technically not part of the warrant, indicates that they intended the warrant request to include defendant’s residence and understood that the warrant did so.
I do not disagree with the substance of Part I.B. of the majority’s opinion, but under the analysis outlined above I would not reach the good faith exception question in this case. The evidence found in defendant’s cabin falls under the valid warrant and is therefore admissible on that ground.
I respectfully dissent from Part I.A. of the majority opinion but concur in the judgment affirming the district court.

. The most recent definition of the term "premises” is much the same though with some qualification: "Land with its appurtenances and structures thereon. Premises is an elastic and inclusive term and it does not have one definite and fixed meaning.” Black’s Law Dictionary (6th ed. 1990).