Court Opinion

ID: 9486693
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:56:30.704999+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:52.548113
License: Public Domain

TANG, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur fully in Judge Nelson’s opinion. I write separately to emphasize that we should not allow our courts to be used to sanction racism in any form. The Supreme Court recognized in Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1, 68 S.Ct. 836, 92 L.Ed. 1161 (1948), that court enforcement of discriminatory covenants was state action subject to the dictates of the Fourteenth Amendment. Allowing the Immigration Service to utilize evidence obtained from racially discriminatory treatment of Hispanics would entail our participation in that discrimination.
The exclusionary rule here serves the essential function of preserving judicial integrity. Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 222, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 1443, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669 (1960). Where federal agents violate the Fourth Amendment in bad faith by stopping a person solely based on race, judicial integrity would be impaired by allowing the introduction of evidence obtained by racially discriminatory action. “Federal courts cannot countenance deliberate violations of basic constitutional rights. To do so would violate our judicial oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States.” Adamson v. C.I.R., 745 F.2d 541, 546 (9th Cir.1984).