Court Opinion

ID: 9458939
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:05:58.371585+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:57.257742
License: Public Domain

ROBERT P. ANDERSON, Circuit Judge
(concurring in result):
I concur in the result, but I disagree with the implications of some of the rationale relied upon by the majority.
There is no reason why evidence which is legitimately in the hands of one state or federal police department cannot be made available to other state or federal law enforcement agencies without a warrant, even if it is to be used for a different purpose. The majority, relying upon Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 478-481, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971), suggests that a second police authority must secure a warrant for its additional “minor” intrusion. This cited portion of Coolidge is a reference to the fact that a warrant is required to search a person’s home, even if he is arrested in it without a warrant, but I do not see that this Coolidge discussion, or any other case, mandates that inter-police-agency use of evidence be restricted.
I concur in the result, however, because I do not think that Birrell’s papers were legitimately in the hands of the city police when the federal agent looked *118at them. Although his papers were lawfully taken from Mrs. Belle’s apartment by the city police, they had no right to retain them when their lawful use of them had terminated, they no longer had need of them, and Birrell had demanded possession of them. The need for a warrant was not to enable the federal agents to get the papers from the city police, but to get by BirrelPs right to immediate possession of his own property.