Court Opinion

ID: 9763305
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:40:36.26331+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:40.811009
License: Public Domain

TEAGUE, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the majority’s implicit holding that pursuant to the Federal Constitution a valid inventory search occurred in this cause. I wish, however, that the majority had cited and discussed the more recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, which interpret the Fourth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, as applied to “inventory searches of automobiles.”
I am convinced that under its more recent decisions construing and interpreting the Fourth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, the Supreme Court of the United States would sustain the inventory search in this instance. For starters, see South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364, 96 S.Ct. 3092, 49 L.Ed.2d 1000 (1976).
The appellant does not invoke the Texas Constitution in this cause, but, instead, has only invoked the Federal Constitution. In my view, in light of how the Supreme Court has been recently interpreting the Fourth Amendment, appellant has made a poor choice of which Constitution to rely upon.
It is only when the Supreme Court sets minimum constitutional freedoms and guarantees, below those set by the highest State Court, that Art. VI of the Federal Constitution mandates that the members of this Court must adhere to and abide by its deci*465sions. However, should this Court opt to give the citizens of the State of Texas greater Constitutional rights and freedoms, then it is permitted to do so if it invokes and applies the Texas Constitution. In this instance, this Court may not invoke and apply the Texas Constitution because appellant does not rest his claim on the Texas Constitution, but, instead, rests his claim solely upon the Federal Constitution. He loses.