Court Opinion

ID: 9462035
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:30:27.48913+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:22.391999
License: Public Domain

CHOY, Circuit Judge,
joined by MERRILL, Circuit Judge, concurring.
I fully concur in the majority opinion except as to the dicta at pages 250 and 251-252 voicing this court’s approbation of mere hunch as a basis of reasonable belief for a warrantless search by a parole officer of a parolee’s home and person. Hunch carries with it a license to abuse; it gives a parole officer carte blanche to make such searches.
I am concerned about the liberality with which parole officers and the district courts may apply “hunch” as used in the foregoing opinion. I would prefer that that language be omitted. That would leave the opinion saying, as it otherwise does, that a parolee and his home are subject to search by the parole officer when the officer reasonably believes that such search is necessary in the performance of his duties and that his decision to search may be based upon specific facts though they be less than sufficient to sustain a finding of probable cause.
Hunch was not the basis for Latta’s arrest by his parole officer who knew that Latta was violating a condition of his parole by associating with known ex-*254convicts. When arrested, Latta held a pipe containing marijuana. On these facts the parole officer formed a reasonable belief that a search of Latta’s home, if only for the marijuana, was necessary. There is no need for the majority opinion to speak of hunch.