Court Opinion

ID: 9473759
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:38:42.941844+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:42.993295
License: Public Domain

ROBERT MADDEN HILL, Circuit Judge,
specially concurring:
I concur in the majority’s opinion and write here separately only regarding a hesitancy I have concerning the analysis in the. majority’s opinion of the “intrusiveness” of the trespass of Agent Castro as it bears on the defendants’ legitimate expectation of privacy in the airplane involved in this case. It appears that the majority elevates “intrusive” of the trespass in this case to a new criterion, see maj. op. at 1126, composed of two elements: (1) the nature and extent of the trespass and (2) the nature of the privacy interest involved. I would resist in canonizing intrusiveness as the test because it seems, at least as a matter of emphasis and semantics, to run counter to the Katz’s Court’s warning that “the reach of [the Fourth] Amendment cannot turn upon the presence or absence of a physical intrusion into any given enclosure.” Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 353, 88 S.Ct. 507, 512, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967) (emphasis added).
To be sure, the action a government agent takes in effectuating a search is relevant, but only as it bears upon the issue of “whether the person who claims the protection of the [Fourth] Amendment has a legitimate expectation of privacy in the invaded place.” Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 143, 99 S.Ct. 421, 430, 58 L.Ed.2d 387, 401 (1978). “Intrusiveness of the trespass” should not, therefore, encompass the privacy interest of the individual; it is merely a factor to be considered in determining the legitimacy of the interest. The difficulty that an agent goes to in gaining a view *1130bears on the reasonableness of the expectation of privacy; it should not, however, be an independent factor in “intrusiveness.” More precisely, the difficulty of gaining a view depends on the same facts that make up the expectation of privacy calculus, in our case specifically: height of the airplane, curtains on the windows, slipperiness and fragility of the wings, lighting conditions, etc. These conditions may require the trespass, but they also determine how legitimate was the defendants’ expectation of privacy.
I think the result reached by the majority could have been more directly reached by holding that: (1) given the conditions, i.e., height of airplane, curtains drawn, etc., the defendants had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the cabin area of the airplane and (2) Castro invaded or intruded upon that expectation by peering into the cabin area. That the conditions required him to clamber up on the wing, thus trespassing, is not really relevant once a legitimate expectation of privacy has been found.
1 can with little difficulty envision a similar case in which an agent acquires his view without physically encountering the airplane, for example, by using a stepladder. I can further envision an argument by the government in such a case that from the language in Amuny about intrusiveness, since there was no physical trespass, the first Amuny factor is not even discussable,1 whereas I would contend that the case is at least as good for suppression of the search since the individual’s expectation of privacy in the cabin area is just as great and just as legitimate regardless of the presence of a trespass.
I add these comments to make clear that in my opinion the ultimate issue in determining whether a Fourth Amendment violation has occurred is whether there has been an invasion of a legitimate expectation of privacy and that intrusiveness of trespass is merely a way of establishing an invasion in a case where there has been a physical trespass.

. Whether the government could so contend with any measure of credibility in the light of Katz is entirely another question. It would at least be a true test of the extent of commitment to a "zealous" representation which is experienced in the courtroom on a daily basis.