Court Opinion

ID: 9491843
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:25:12.500497+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:58.290794
License: Public Domain

POLITZ, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I view the fourth amendment as an invaluable part of the constitutional framework of our American society. I am persuaded beyond peradventure that the pretextual arrest, vehicle impoundment, and search in the instant case are constitutionally offensive. The evidence gathered from the search of the vehicle should be suppressed for the facts as noted and the reasons set forth in the panel opinion, United States v. Castro, 129 F.3d 752 (5th Cir.1997).
This case presents the unique situation of an admittedly pretextual stop and arrest, followed by a pretextual impoundment, to obtain a pretextual inventory search for *735drags the agents suspected were in the vehicle. These agents, state and federal, admittedly did not have probable cause to make an arrest, and stood by as mere observers when the deputy made the stop and arrest for the failure to wear seat belts. While each of the actions could be upheld if some other lawful basis existed, as the majority is quick to note, there must be a point where the combination of pretext and continuing bad faith cannot be tolerated if the fourth amendment protections are to have any meaning whatsoever. In my opinion, the facts and circumstances of this case, viewed clearly and objectively, present just such a situation.
It is my perception that technical distortions and expansion of exclusionary rule exceptions threaten to make the fourth amendment a hollow shell of its former self. The treatment accorded by the majority opinion belies the very essence of the fourth amendment. Accordingly, I must dissent therefrom.