Court Opinion

ID: 9481053
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:06:23.11725+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:04.086642
License: Public Domain

FERNANDEZ, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the cogent majority opinion, but find that I cannot agree with all of the reasoning in Part II of that opinion.
In Part II the majority determines that Lockett has standing to raise the knock and announce issue, but that he cannot have a suppression remedy. I agree that he has no right to claim that remedy, but I do not believe he has standing in the first place.
The majority approach appears to be driven by too narrow a construction of the fourth amendment itself, a point of view that causes the majority to believe that 18 U.S.C. § 3109 goes much beyond the amendment. While admitting that the fourth amendment may in some circumstances reach beyond mere privacy concerns (see footnote 4), the majority still sees privacy as the real core of the amendment. That view is understandable, since recent jurisprudence has focused upon the privacy aspect. Still and all, I believe it is incorrect.
It is my view that the safety emanations from the core of the fourth amendment are at least as important as its privacy emanations. The fear of a smashing in of doors by government agents is based upon much more than a concern that our privacy will be disturbed. It is based upon concern for our safety and the safety of our families. Indeed, the minions of dictators do not kick in doors for the mere purpose of satisfying some voyeuristic desire to peer around and then go about their business. Something much more malevolent and dangerous is afoot when they take those actions. It is that which strikes terror into the hearts of their victims. The fourth amendment protects us from that fear as much as it protects our privacy.
While the privacy paradigm has raised a mist before our eyes, no such brume afflicted our ancestors. The knock and announce requirement, including its safety purposes, was reported on by Sir Edward Coke. See Semayne’s Case, 5 Coke’s Rep. 91a (K.B.1603). And, as Justice Story indicated in his commentaries, the fourth amendment was designed to protect “personal security, personal liberty and private property.” See J. Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States § 1902 (2d ed. 1851). Those concerns go far beyond mere privacy interests.
Similar concerns have been expressed throughout our history. See, e.g., Winston v. Lee, 470 U.S. 753, 105 S.Ct. 1611, 84 L.Ed.2d 662 (1985) (personal security); Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 83 S.Ct. 1623, 10 L.Ed.2d 726 (1963) (knock and announce); Gouled v. United States, 255 U.S. 298, 41 S.Ct. 261, 65 L.Ed. 647 (1921) (personal security), overruled on other grounds, 387 U.S. 294, 87 S.Ct. 1642, 18 L.Ed.2d 782 (1967); Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 630, 6 S.Ct. 524, 532, 29 L.Ed. 746 (1886) (personal security), overruled on other grounds, 387 U.S. 294, 87 S.Ct. 1642, 18 L.Ed.2d 782 (1967). In other words, the safety protection functions which inform *593the knock and announce requirement are as much a part of the fourth amendment as the privacy function itself. As such, I do not agree that 18 U.S.C. § 3109 adds some extraordinary protection above and beyond that of the fourth amendment. There is, therefore, no reason to hold that section 3109 confers standing upon a person in Lockett’s shoes, even though he would have no standing to assert fourth amendment rights.
Therefore, I do concur, but do so on grounds which bespeak a somewhat different view of the scope and power of the fourth amendment. I do so with the hope that we will not forget the full glory of that amendment and that we will continue to see that its brilliant light is made of a spectrum of colors, rather than the single one we see when we limit ourselves to using a privacy lens.