Court Opinion

ID: 9741333
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:53:48.064436+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:23.129619
License: Public Domain

McCORMICK, Justice
(dissenting).
I would affirm the Court of Appeals.
The question here is whether the warrant clauses of the Federal or Iowa Constitutions were violated by the warrantless police search of a closed paper sack in the locked trunk of defendant’s impounded automobile. I believe the search was unlawful under both constitutions.
I. The Federal Constitution. As the court recognizs, the authorities construing the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution are divided concerning whether a locked automobile trunk may always be entered during a routine inventory search. Such a blanket right is plainly not authorized under Cady v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433, 93 S.Ct. 2523, 37 L.Ed.2d 706 (1973). Justice Powell recognized this in South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364, 377, n.2, 96 S.Ct. 3092, 3101, n.2, 49 L.Ed.2d 1000, 1010 (1976) (Powell, J., concurring) (distinguishing Dombrowski on the basis that an officer in that case reasonably believed the trunk contained a gun). Moreover, I do not believe Opperman recognizes such a right. Even if it did, the right could not include authority to open a closed container when its exterior does not disclose its contents and its incriminating nature is not immediately apparent.
A. Reasonableness of searching the locked trunk. When a Supreme Court opinion does not have the unqualified assent of five members, the holding of the Court may be viewed as the position taken by the members who concurred on the narrowest grounds. Marks v. United States, 430 U.S. 188, 193, 97 S.Ct. 990, 993, 51 L.Ed.2d 260, 266 (1977). Although Justice Powell joined the opinion in Opperman, his separate opinion expresses his understanding of the holding. Because the holding commanded only five votes, his view is authoritative.
Among other observations relating to the circumstances in Opperman, Justice Powell noted that the standard inventory at issue in that case did not include opening a vehicle trunk if it was found to be locked. 428 U.S. at 380, n.6, 96 S.Ct. at 3102, n.6, 49 L.Ed.2d at 1011. He also recognized that the reasonableness of a particular inventory search would depend on the circumstances of the case: “The absence of a warrant will not impair the effectiveness of post-search review of the reasonableness of a particular inventory search.” Id. at 383, 96 S.Ct. at 3104, 49 L.Ed.2d at 1014. Indeed, the majority opinion recognized that an inventory search must be reasonable in scope. 428 *509U.S. at 376, n.10, 96 S.Ct. at 3100, n.10, 49 L.Ed.2d at 1009.
I would hold that the search was unreasonable in scope in the present case. A similar conclusion was reached in analogous circumstances in United States v. Wilson, 636 F.2d 1161 (8th Cir. 1980). After stopping an automobile and arresting Wilson for traffic offenses, an officer decided to take him to the police station. Because he believed Wilson was incapable of driving the vehicle to the station, the officer decided to have it towed by a private towing service to a private towing yard. Before it was towed, the officer conducted a routine inventory search of the vehicle, including its locked trunk. Firearms were found in the trunk, and Wilson unsuccessfully moved to suppress that evidence in subsequent weapons offense prosecutions. On appeal, the court found the decision to have the vehicle towed was justified but held the search of the locked trunk was unreasonable:
We hold, therefore, that the needs of the Government in conducting an inventory search may be ordinarily accomplished without the serious intrusion into the locked trunk of an automobile. Absent a special justification for a more extensive intrusion, the routine search of a locked automobile trunk is unreasonable under the fourth amendment.
Id. at 1165.
In contrasting the circumstances with those in Opperman, the court said:
In Opperman, the Court noted that the car’s owner “was not present to make other arrangements for the safekeeping of his belongings” and that the “inventory itself was prompted by the presence in plain view of a number of valuables inside the car....” Here, by contrast, the police offered no special justification for the search and Wilson was present during the search and capable of making other arrangements to safeguard his property. The police could have protected their interests as well as Wilson’s without intruding into the privacy of the automobile trunk. The police, for example, could have asked for Wilson’s consent to search the car, or, in the alternative, requested that Wilson arrange to remove the car himself or relieve police from liability for claims. In addition, the police could have inventoried the trunk as a single unit. . .. [U]nit inventories might better serve the interests of the Government by minimizing “the possibility of loss and the possibility of false claims against police by the owner.”
Id. at 1165-66. In distinguishing a locked trunk from the rest of the automobile, the court observed that a locked trunk is not subject to the same level of visual intrusion as the vehicle interior and is more likely to be the repository of private effects, implicating a greater expectation of privacy. Id. at 1164. The court’s reasoning is equally persuasive in the present case. Other decisions which impose limitations on the scope of inventory searches include State v. Hatfield, 364 So.2d 578, 580-81 (La.1978); Manalansan v. State, 45 Md.App. 667, 670-74, 415 A.2d 308, 310-12 (1980); State v. Goff, W.Va., 272 S.E.2d 457, 459-62 (1980).
B. Reasonableness of searching the closed sack. The Opperman principle converges in this case with the principle in Arkansas v. Sanders, 442 U.S. 753, 99 S.Ct. 2586, 61 L.Ed.2d 235 (1979). The question in Sanders was whether, in the absence of exigent circumstances, police are required to obtain a warrant before searching luggage taken from an automobile properly stopped and searched for contraband. The Court said that the right to search an automobile does not carry with it the right to search everything found in it. Id. at 762-63, 99 S.Ct. at 2592, 61 L.Ed.2d at 244. It also said “a suitcase taken from an automobile stopped on the highway is not necessarily attended by any lesser expectation of privacy than is associated with luggage taken from other locations.” Id. at 764, 99 S.Ct. at 2593, 61 L.Ed.2d at 245. Consequently the Court held that “the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment applies to personal luggage taken from an automobile to the same degree it applies to such luggage in other locations.” Id. at 766, 99 S.Ct. at 2594, 61 L.Ed.2d at 246. *510Thus, under Sanders, the right to search items found during lawful automobile searches is independently subject to fourth amendment constraints.
We are now confronted with a problem suggested by Justice Blackmun in his dissent in Sanders:
Or suppose the arresting officer opens the car’s trunk and finds that it contains an array of containers — an orange crate, a lunch bucket, an attache case, a duffle-bag, a cardboard box, a backpack, a tote-bag, and a paper bag. Which of these may be searched immediately, and which are so “personal” that they must be impounded for future search only pursuant to a warrant?
Id. at 772, 99 S.Ct. at 2597, 61 L.Ed.2d at 250. (emphasis added). We addressed an analogous problem involving a knapsack in State v. Schrier, 283 N.W.2d 338 (Iowa 1979). We said: “The answer appears to turn on whether, under the circumstances, defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy regarding the contents.” Id. at 346.
We also noted the remark of the Court in Sanders: “ ‘Thus, some containers (for example a kit of burglar tools or a gun case) by their very nature cannot support any reasonable expectation of privacy because their contents can be inferred from their outward appearance.’ ” Id. The remark in Sanders included these additional statements:
Similarly, in some cases the contents of a package will be open to “plain view,” thereby obviating the need for a warrant. See Harris v. United States, 390 U.S. 234, 236, 88 S.Ct. 992, 993, 19 L.Ed.2d 1067, 1068 (1968) (per curiam). There will be difficulties in determining which parcels taken from an automobile require a warrant for their search and which do not. Our decision in this case means only that a warrant generally is required before personal luggage can be searched and that the extent to which the Fourth Amendment applies to containers and other parcels depends not at all upon whether they are seized from an automobile.
442 U.S. at 764, n.13, 99 S.Ct. at 2593-94, n.13, 61 L.Ed.2d at 245.
Under the Sanders-Schrier test, defendant plainly had an expectation of privacy in the contents of the paper sack in the present case. It was closed and kept in the locked trunk of his automobile. Unlike a kit of burglar tools or a gun case, its contents could not be inferred from its outward appearance.
Because the Sanders court said the extent to which the fourth amendment applies to containers and other parcels does not depend upon whether they are seized from an automobile, the “inventory search exception” to the warrant requirement does not justify the search of the paper bag. Furthermore, because the incriminating nature of the contents was not readily apparent, the plain view doctrine is inapplicable. See State v. Davis, 228 N.W.2d 67, 71 (Iowa 1975). Consequently I would hold that the search of the sack infringed defendant’s fourth amendment rights. See United States v. Bloomfield, 594 F.2d 1200 (8th Cir. 1979) (knapsack); United States v. Hill, 458 F.Supp. 31 (D.D.C.1978) (flight bag); State v. Daniel, 589 P.2d 408 (Alaska 1979) (briefcase); People v. Dennison, 61 Ill.App.3d 473, 18 Ill.Dec. 756, 378 N.E.2d 220 (1978) (tool box). Thus, even if the search of the locked trunk did not exceed the scope of a lawful inventory search, the search of the closed paper sack was unlawful.
II. The Iowa Constitution. We have previously exercised our prerogative to afford greater protections under the Iowa Constitution than are provided under similar provisions of the Federal Constitution. See, e. g., Bierkamp v. Rogers, 293 N.W.2d 577, 579 (Iowa 1980). Even if the court were right that the fourth amendment was not violated in this case, I would hold that Ia.Const.Art. I, § 8, was violated. A similar course was taken by the South Dakota Supreme Court in Opperman after remand. See State v. Opperman, 247 N.W.2d 673 (S.D.1976).
Iowa has a proud tradition of concern for individual rights. We should not be reluctant to show greater sensitivity to the *511rights of Iowans under our constitution than the Supreme Court accords to their rights under the Federal Constitution. The reasons for doing so are persuasive in this case.
ALLBEE, J., joins this dissent.