Court Opinion

ID: 9459728
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:30:11.036888+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:18.700009
License: Public Domain

SIMPSON, Circuit Judge
(concurring specially):
I concur in the disposition of this ease reached by Judge Clark’s opinion,, that the conviction stand affirmed.
If free to do so, I would adopt Judge Aldrich’s proposal that we refuse to permit the contraband seized to become the basis for prosecution. The protection of the travelling public from attempts at skyjacking demands that courts allow airport guards wide discretion in searching prospective passengers. Because this is so and to forestall abuse of that discretion by pretextual searches we should adopt a rule that forbids the evi-dentiary use of contraband other than weapons turned up as a by-product of such searches. In a word, I believe that Judge Aldrich’s position is both sound and salutary.
But I consider that while not directly, certainly by implication, our recent Moreno 1 and Legato 2 cases have rejected this approach. Moreno and Legato approve the use of contraband diseov-*1280ered in an airport search of a prospective passenger for a weapon as the basis for conviction of possession of the contraband. Any holding that the contraband here although subject to seizure and condemnation should not have been made the basis for a conviction, is I think forbidden by Moreno and Legato.
Thus, while I would follow Judge Ald-rich’s solution if free to do so, I am constrained by Moreno to concur in the result reached by Judge Clark.

. United States v. Moreno, 475 F.2d 44, 5 Cir. 1973.

. United States v. Legato, 408 F.2d 480, 5th Cir. 1973.