Court Opinion

ID: 9884380
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 02:54:25.965968+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:37.302598
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE GOLDENHERSH, concurring in part and dissenting in part: I concur in the affirmance of the judgment but cannot agree with that portion of the opinion which discusses the allegedly illegal searches and seizures and purports to overrule People v. De Filippis, 34 Ill.2d 129. With respect to the seizure of the furs from the apartment at 2158 South Millard Avenue, the record shows that a police officer stationed in a building directly across the street from 2156 South Millard saw defendant carry a bundle wrapped in a bed sheet from the second floor of 2156 South Millard to the second floor of 2158 South Millard (see 99 Ill. App. 2d 273, 275) and that this information was communicated by walkie-talkie to the arresting officers shortly before defendant was arrested. If the issue is cognizable in this proceeding at all, it should have been decided on the obvious ground that the search of 2158 South Millard which occurred almost simultaneously with defendant’s arrest was made under exigent circumstances which obviated the need for a search warrant. Concerning the items taken from the Mustang parked in the garage to the rear of 2156, the record shows admission of the evidence without objection (see 9 Ill. App. 2d at 280) or assuming, arguendo, error of constitutional dimension, that the error, beyond reasonable doubt, was harmless. In my opinion De Filippis correctly states the law and its gratuitous overruling, albeit by way of pure dictum, is unfortunate. My reasons for so stating are eloquently expressed in the partial dissent of Mr. Justice Portas in Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 201, 22 L. Ed. 176, 203, 89 S. Ct. 961, wherein he said, “The effect of the Court’s decision, bluntly acknowledged, is to add another to the long list of cases in which the courts have tolerated governmental conduct that violates the Fourth Amendment. The courts have done this by resort to the legalism of ‘standing.’ See, e.g., Goldstein v. United States, 316 U.S. 114, 121, 86 L. Ed. 1312, 1318, 62 S. Ct. 1000, 1004 (1942); Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 9 L. Ed. 2d 441, 83 S. Ct. 407 (1963). Cf. United States v. Jeffers, 342 U.S. 48, 96 L. Ed. 59, 72 S. Ct. 93 (1951); Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 4 L. Ed. 2d 697, 80 S. Ct. 725 (1960); Mancusi v. De Forte, 392 U.S. 364, 20 L. Ed. 2d 1154, 88 S. Ct. 2120 (1968). “It is a fundamental principle of our constitutional scheme that government, like the individual, is bound by the law. We do not subscribe to the totalitarian principle that the Government is the law, or that it may disregard the law even in pursuit of the lawbreaker. As this Court said in Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 659, 6 L. Ed. 2d 1081, 1092, 81 S. Ct. 1684, 1694 (1961), ‘Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence.’ “The Fourth Amendment to our Constitution prohibits ‘unreasonable’ governmental interference with the fundamental facet of individual liberty: ‘[t] he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects.’ Mr. Justice Jackson recognized the central importance of the Fourth Amendment in his dissenting opinion in Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 180-181, 93 L. Ed. 1879, 1893, 69 S. Ct. 1302, 1313 (1949): ‘Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart. Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government. And one need only briefly to have dwelt and worked among a people possessed of many admirable qualities but deprived of these rights to know that the human personality deteriorates and dignity and self-reliance disappear where home, persons and possessions are subject at any hour to unheralded search and seizure by the police.’ ” In Cooper v. California, 386 U.S. 58, 62, 17 L. Ed. 2d 730, 734, 87 S. Ct. 788, Mr. Justice Black, speaking for the majority, said, “Our holding, of course, does not affect the State’s power to impose higher standards on searches and seizures than required by the Federal Constitution if it chooses to do so.” Section 6 of article I of the constitution of 1970, in my opinion, sets a higher standard than does the fourth amendment and in this case this court has regressed from that standard.