Court Opinion

ID: 9451223
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:10:16.328437+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:37.106283
License: Public Domain

EDGERTON, Senior Circuit Judge
(concurring in the result):
I think the police entered the Swann Street house on June 10 unlawfully. It follows that the evidence they got in the house should not have been admitted at appellant’s trial.
Apart from all other questions, the entry of Officer Cousins without a warrant was unlawful because he did not first announce his supposed authority and his purpose. Miller v. United States, 357 U.S. 301, 78 S.Ct. 1190, 2 L.Ed.2d 1332 (1958), reversing Shepherd v. United *881States, 100 U.S.App.D.C. 302, 244 F.2d 750 (1956). Whether he “tried the door”, as he testified, or the “door was open”, as he also testified, is immaterial. In Nueslein v. District of Columbia, 73 App.D.C. 85, 86, 115 F.2d 690, 691 (1940), the police “either opened the door or passed through the door already opened * * * ” This court held the entry unlawful. In a more recent case we said: “Even if the search * * * had been made pursuant to a search warrant, the officers would have been required to state their identity and purpose before opening the door. 18 U.S.C. § 3109. * * * We think that a person’s right to privacy in his home * * * is governed by something more than the fortuitous circumstance of an unlocked door, and that the word ‘break’, as used in 18 U.S.C. § 3109, means ‘enter without permission.’ We think that a ‘peaceful’ entry which does not violate the provisions of § 3109 must be a permissive one, and not merely one which does not result in a breaking of parts of the house.” Keiningham v. United States, 109 U.S.App.D.C. 272, 275-276, 287 F.2d 126, 129-130 (1960).
I cannot regard the entry of Officer Cousins as permissive. The majority appears to treat the carrying on of an unlicensed liquor business as implying an invitation to the public to enter. I disagree. In my opinion, whatever invitation the occupier may have given to some or many persons, either expressly or impliedly, he gave no invitation to the general public. No facts known to Officer Cousins made it reasonable for him to think the public was invited. The house was “a private home. * * * A private residence.” Officer Cousins so testified and there was no contrary testimony. As far as appears, the house not only was a private home but looked like one. There was no substantial evidence to the contrary. The officer contradicted his own testimony that the door was “open”. Many people often leave doors of their private homes unlocked and sometimes leave them open. Moreover, the police must have known that persons who sell liquor illegally are not often so rash as to invite the general public to enter. They invite only selected and trusted customers and persons these persons introduce. An invitation to all members of a group, even a group that is easy to join, is not an invitation to the public.1
The laundry in On Lee v. United States, 343 U.S. 747, 72 S.Ct. 967, 96 L.Ed. 1270 (1952), the “public valet and shoeshine shop” in Fisher v. United States, 92 U.S.App.D.C. 247, 205 F.2d 702, cert. denied, 346 U.S. 872, 74 S.Ct. 122, 98 L.Ed. 381 (1953), and the “public barber shop” in Smith v. United States, 70 App.D.C. 255, 105 F.2d 778 (1939), all were places where businesses were publicly carried on. Since the public was plainly invited, entry of the police violated no one’s privacy.
The illegal entry of Officer Cousins could not be legalized by later events, including his success in buying liquor. “[A]n illegal search cannot be legalized by what it brings to light.” Nueslein v. District of Columbia, supra, 73 App.D.C. at 89, 115 F.2d at 694.
Other convictions and sentences of the appellant resulted from entry into another house on June 18. If they are valid, as I think they are, the validity or invalidity of the convictions and sentences that resulted from the June 10 entry into the Swann Street house is not important to the appellant, since the sentences were concurrent. Hirabayashi v. United States, 320 U.S. 81, 63 S.Ct. 1375, 87 L.Ed. 1774 (1943). But this court’s opinion that the June 10 entry was legal affects the law of the District of Columbia.

. Fraternal Order of Eagles No. 778 v. United States, 57 F.2d 93 (3d Cir. 1932), illustrates this.