Court Opinion

ID: 9499328
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:44:59.581523+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:25.836265
License: Public Domain

CALLAHAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent because United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984), our own precedent, and authority from our sister circuits support a holding that extrinsic evidence may be considered when determining whether the good faith exception to the application of the exclusionary rule applies. When the extrinsic evidence is considered here, sufficient indicia of probable cause and objective good faith reliance on the search warrant exists to support the application of the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule.
While Leon explained that the good faith exception does not apply in certain circumstances, including when the affidavit is “so lacking in indicia of probable cause as to render official belief in its existence entirely unreasonable,” 468 U.S. at 923, 104 S.Ct. 3405 (quoting Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. at 590, 610-611, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975)) (Powell, J., concurring in part), it also stated that “all of the circumstances — including whether the warrant application had previously been rejected by a different magistrate — may be considered” in the good faith inquiry. Id. at 922, 95 S.Ct. 2254, n. 23. Moreover, in discussing the deterrent effect of the exclusionary rule, Leon explained that a police officer generally should be able to rely on a judge’s probable cause determination because “it is the magistrate’s responsibility to determine whether the officer’s allegations establish probable cause.” Id. at 921, 104 S.Ct. 3405. Because Agent Fishburn provided the superior court judge with additional facts to support a “colorable” probable cause determination, see United States v. Hove, 848 F.2d 137, 140 (9th Cir.1988), and because Agent Fishburn relied on the judge’s probable cause determination in objective good faith, I would apply the good faith exception to the application of the exclusionary rule here and reverse the district court’s suppression order.
We have held that extrinsic evidence of time pressure may be considered when determining whether the Leon good faith exception applies to a deficient “bare bones” affidavit. See United States v. Weber, 923 F.2d 1338, 1346 (9th Cir.1991). In Weber, we considered evidence extrinsic to the four corners of the affidavit to determine whether the warrant was obtained reasonably. We ultimately determined *906that the government had complete control over the timing of the search, and accordingly held that the warrant was not reasonably obtained under Leon. Although Weber did not address a court’s consideration of information known to both the affiant and the magistrate supporting a probable cause determination in the good faith equation, the case is nevertheless significant because the extrinsic evidence in Weber was considered where, like here, the affidavit lacked an indicia of probable cause. Id. at 1346 (describing affidavit as being “the kind of ‘bare bones’ affidavit that is deficient under Leon ”).
In Hove, we concluded that the affidavit there was so lacking in indicia of probable cause that the Leon good faith exception to the exclusionary rule was not applicable. Hove, 848 F.2d at 140. We also declined to consider additional facts known to the officer but not conveyed to the magistrate when reviewing the affidavit for indicia of probable cause. However, we did not base our declination on the deficiency of the affidavit, but rather we reasoned that the additional facts could not be considered because the Leon test “is based solely on facts presented to the magistrate,” and “Leon does not extend ... to allow the consideration of facts known only to an officer and not presented to the magistrate.” Id. While Hove prevents us from considering facts known to the officer but not presented to the magistrate, it nevertheless implies that consideration of additional facts known to both the affiant and judge would be appropriate in the Leon analysis — even when faced with a “bare bones” affidavit.
Other circuit courts have held accordingly. In United States v. Frazier, 423 F.3d 526, 535-36 (6th Cir.2005), the Sixth Circuit held that a court may consider information that the affiant told the magistrate but did not include in the affidavit when determining whether the affidavit was so lacking in probable cause as to render official belief in its existence entirely unreasonable under Leon. The Sixth Circuit relied on Leon’s instruction to lower courts to consider all of the circumstances in determining an officer’s good faith, “including whether the warrant application had previously been rejected by a different magistrate,” explaining that by considering whether another magistrate had rejected a probable cause affidavit, a court necessarily would have to look beyond the four corners of the affidavit. Id. at 534.
In United States v. Legg, 18 F.3d 240, 243-44 (4th Cir.1994), the Fourth Circuit held that even if an affidavit lacked any indicia of probable cause, contemporaneous oral probable cause statements made to the judge who signed the warrant could be considered in applying Leon’s good faith exception. The Legg court rejected the defendant’s argument that language in Leon — concluding that the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule does not apply when the affidavit supporting the warrant lacks sufficient indicia of probable cause — categorically limited the good faith inquiry to the warrant itself, because Leon did not address whether an officer’s reliance on statements to a magistrate, in conjunction with a deficient affidavit, could be reasonable. Id. at 243, n. 1. The Fourth Circuit reasoned that because the good faith analysis focuses on the reasonableness of the officer’s reliance on the warrant, the totality of the circumstances should be considered in determining this reasonableness. Id. The officer was acting reasonably in Legg because he was relying on all of the information he provided to the magistrate, both in the affidavit and orally, when he executed the warrant. Id. at 244.
I find the Fourth and Sixth Circuits’ reasoning compelling and agree with their holdings that facts known to both the affi-ant and the judge may be considered in Leon’s good faith analysis, regardless of *907the extent of the affidavit’s deficiency. The holdings in Frazier and Legg are also supported by Weber and Hove because our cases recognize that it is appropriate to consider extrinsic evidence when undertaking a Leon good faith determination, “despite the complete lack of any indicia of probable cause in the affidavit.” Hove, 848 F.2d at 140 (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Weber, 923 F.2d at 1346. Accordingly, I would follow our sister circuits and consider the oral statements that Agent Fishburn provided to the superior court judge during the preparation of the warrant when making a good faith determination under Leon.
Agent Fishburn told the superior court judge that she obtained the information about Jao — that he was a chemist flying to the United States via LAX to manufacture methamphetamine — from a wiretap initiated out of the DEA’s Hong Kong office. She also told the judge that Jao was identified coming through customs at LAX by his passport, and that she observed counter-surveillance driving during Jao and Luong’s trip to The Home Depot.
Considering this additional information, the affidavit was not so lacking in probable cause as to render official belief in its existence unreasonable. The tip from the DEA in Hong Kong — that Jao was flying to the United States to assist in methamphetamine production — was supported by an accurate corroboration of future activity to carry out the criminal activity and therefore may be deemed valid. Specifically, Jao’s overseas trip to the United States is a type of “significant future activity” contemplated under Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. at 225-27, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983) (anonymous letter describing travel to buy drugs, coupled with corroboration of predicted travel, established probable cause), and United States v. Diaz-Rosas, 13 F.3d 1305, 1307 (9th Cir.1994) (informant’s tip of vehicle’s travel route corroborated by police observation established probable cause), to support the tip’s reliability.
The tip, in addition to the surveillance of Luong and Jao at Luong’s residence, the counter-surveillance driving, and the purchase of the hose adaptor fitting at The Home Depot, provided “a colorable showing of probable cause” that evidence of methamphetamine manufacturing might be found at Luong’s residence. Hove, 848 F.2d at 140. Therefore, Agent Fishburn was not objectively unreasonable by relying on the superior court judge’s probable cause determination.
In sum, the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule is designed to save unconstitutionally obtained evidence from suppression when suppression would not deter police misconduct. See Leon, 468 U.S. at 907-13, 104 S.Ct. 3405. Here, Agent Fishburn acted objectively reasonably by relying on the superior court judge’s probable cause determination. Penalizing her for the superior court’s error would not deter Fourth Amendment violations. See id. at 921, 104 S.Ct. 3405. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.