Court Opinion

ID: 9446983
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:22:58.061501+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:51.790245
License: Public Domain

FAHY, Circuit Judge
(concurring in result).
As to appellant’s standing to require the District Court to consider the valid*317ity of the search and seizure, I find myself in disagreement with the majority of our court. Rule 41(e) Fed.R.Crim.P. authorizes a “person aggrieved” to move to suppress evidence claimed to have been obtained by an invalid search or seizure. This Rule is the outgrowth primarily of numerous Supreme Court decisions establishing the exclusionary rule, and should be interpreted in light of those decisions.1 So attempting, I think the core of the matter is that the administration of criminal justice by the federal courts must be free of the use of evidence against an accused obtained by a violation of his rights under the Fourth Amendment. It has usually been said that to obtain the benefit of the rule the accused must claim an interest in the place searched or the thing seized.2 The reason for this is that the rule is available only to the one whose Fourth Amendment rights are claimed to have been violated; that is, he may not protest the use against him of evidence obtained by the violation of the rights of privacy of someone else. But it is no essential part of the rule that the accused must accuse himself. If the prosecution claims that the accused was in possession or control of contraband or other seized articles, and seeks to use the same as evidence against him, surely he has standing to object that the evidence was obtained in violation of his constitutionally protected rights. Otherwise the purpose of the rule to make the Fourth Amendment effective, and to free federal trials of the fruits of violations of constitutionally protected privacy, would be substantially frustrated; fundamental rights could be violated without recourse because the victim did not concede guilt, where, as in this case, possession is enough to establish the crime. I think it makes no difference that a concession of possession for purposes of objecting to the evidence might not be admissible on the issue of guilt, for the right to protest should not require an accused to accuse himself when the prosecution’s own testimony establishes that his right of privacy is involved. So to require would exact too high a price for the availability of the exclusionary rule. Accordingly, I would hold in this case that the prosecution’s evidence as to the search and seizure conferred standing upon the appellant to object to the use of the evidence obtained by the alleged violation. See Judge Bazelon’s dissenting opinion in Christensen v. United States, 104 U.S.App.D.C. 35, 259 F.2d 192; and Williams v. United States, 99 U.S.App.D.C. 161, 237 F.2d 789.
Having accorded appellant standing I would nevertheless overrule his objections to the evidence, because I think the seizure of it was not in violation of his constitutionally protected rights. There was probable cause, the police commendably obtained a search warrant from a magistrate, and properly obtained the evidence.
One other matter should be mentioned. Appellant contends that he was denied the right to question an informer on the issue of reliability of information given to the officer who applied for the search warrant. The present case I think does not present any error which justifies any further proceedings because of this matter. The court was not obligated to produce the informer, and no continuance was requested to enable the defense to do so.
I join in affirming the conviction, and am authorized to say that Judge *318EDGERTONand Judge WASHINGTON join in this opinion.

. A painstaking review of the cases is contained in the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Frankfurter in Harris v. United States, 331 U.S. 145, 155, 67 S.Ct. 1098, 1104, 91 L.Ed. 1399. See, also, the opinion's reference to the Act of June 15, 1917, 40 Stat. 228, at 331 U.S. 165, 67 S.Ct. 1108.

. See our opinion, for example, in Jeffers v. United States, 88 U.S.App.D.C. 58, 187 F.2d 498, affirmed 342 U.S. 48, 72 S.Ct. 93, 96 L.Ed. 59. In that case, however, the present question was not involved. On standing the emphasis was that the accused claimed ownership of the property seized, which made it unnecessary also to establish an interest in the premises searched.