Court Opinion

ID: 9475924
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:42:43.548142+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:01.760379
License: Public Domain

HATCHETT, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I agree with the majority that the statute is constitutional on its face and that reasonable suspicion is the proper standard.
Section 5317(b) of 31 U.S.C. required the customs officer to have reasonable suspicion that this particular suitcase contained a monetary instrument being transported in violation of 31 U.S.C. § 5316.
A Customs officer may stop and search, without a search warrant, a vehicle, vessel, aircraft, or other conveyance, envelope or other container, person entering or departing from the United States with respect to which or whom the officer has reasonable cause to believe there is a monetary instrument being transported in violation of section 5516 of this title.
31 U.S.C. § 5317(b).
On the facts of this case, no reasonable suspicion existed that the suitcase in this case contained a monetary instrument. This case presents nothing more than the application of a profile. The customs officer’s profile described all unusually heavy hard-sided suitcases without name tag checked on Avianca Airlines flights to Colombia. If reasonable suspicion existed for the search of this suitcase, then reasonable suspicion will exist for the search of every hard-sided suitcase without a name tag checked on Avianca Airlines.
The customs officer testified that between February and July 1985, he opened about 50,000 suitcases without finding currency, except in the suitcase in this case. For sure, some of these 50,000 suitcases were searched after the May 4, 1985, search in this case. Nevertheless, this proves either that the profile is too general to raise a reasonable suspicion that a given suitcase meeting the profile contains unreported cash, or the customs officers are simply opening suitcases without any indicators suggesting suspicion. If whatever is being used leads to the correct conclusion only one out of 50,000 times, it is too unreliable to support a finding of reasonable suspicion.
The majority states that Agent Headley “utilized certain factors that, in the experience of Customs agents, indicated that a bag should be searched.” In its simplest form, that is exactly what a profile is. The Constitution does not allow Customs officers or any other law enforcement officers to decide beforehand that certain indicators shall always give them the right to search. They may not search every suitcase because it has a hard cover; they may not search every suitcase because it is to be placed aboard a certain airline; surely, they may not search every suitcase because it is to be transported to a certain country. For this and other good reasons, the Eleventh Circuit has until this case uniformly condemned searches based on profiles designed by law enforcement officers and have demanded that “reasonable suspicion” exist to search a person or thing targeted by law enforcement officers.
It is important to remember that the statute under which the customs officer acted in this case authorizes searches for monetary instruments, not heavy weapons or computers. Consequently, the magistrate found: the weight of the bag could not have been an important factor.
It is equally important to remember that this case does not involve what persons or things may be searched upon entry into *1140the United States. Rather, it concerns the search of things legally within the United States, but leaving the country. The question is what type searches United States citizens and others will be subjected to as they leave the country. Our Constitution does not allow searches of persons or things except when supported by “probable cause.” Because we treat border searches in a special manner, we today uphold a statute that reduces the constitutional standard from “probable cause” to “reasonable suspicion.” Congress acted reasonably, I agree the statute is on its face constitutional. The problem is: If the statute can be applied as the majority applies it in this case, the congressional effort and intent is nullified, because as applied in this case the statute is unconstitutional.
I would reverse.