Court Opinion

ID: 9884797
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 03:12:13.092029+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:41:01.035550
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Daily, dissenting: I dissent to the notion that a “construction of the constitution is involved” so as to give us jurisdiction to entertain the direct appeal. Rather, as the majority opinion demonstrates, all that is involved or decided is a factual question of whether the search here was reasonable or unreasonable. Both state and Federal constitutions have long since been construed to mean that only unreasonable searches are prohibited thereby and, conversely, that reasonable searches are permitted. This construction is well established and no longer debatable. Consistent with our practice in the past we should not take jurisdiction on direct appeal merely to reannounce established constructions. (People v. Hord, 329 Ill. 117; People v. Williams, 3 Ill.2d 79.) In like manner we should not, under the guise of construing the constitution, permit our jurisdiction to be invoked merely to determine the factual question as to whether a search was or was not unreasonable under the circumstances of a particular case.