Court Opinion

ID: 9460045
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:38:54.549915+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:26.815999
License: Public Domain

GODBOLD, Circuit Judge
(specially concurring):
I concur in the result but for reasons slightly different from those of Judge Jones’ opinion for the majority. He concludes that the four envelopes were not first class matter and thus not entitled to the protection extended by the fourth amendment1 to first class mailings. “[T]he'privacy of a sealed item bearing the proper amount of postage for a first class item is protected from warrantless opening, not because it is given the appellation ‘first class’ but because the Constitution commands that result.” United States v. Phillips, 478 F.2d 743 (CA5, 1973). I am unable to find either statute or regulation establishing a classification for mail sent postage free to the United States from a point outside the United States by a member of the armed services. Thus it seems to me necessary to look beyond the matter of appellations and examine the nature and characteristics of the particular items to determine whether with respect to them the sender enjoyed a sufficient expectation of privacy that the fourth amendment would protect against their being opened without a search warrant. I think these items did not enjoy such a zone of privacy. The right of a person to send mail free of postage from Viet Nam to the United States is limited to “personal letter mail, including post cards, in the usual and generally accepted form, and sound-recorded communications having the character of personal correspondence.” 39 CFR 131.52. The mail must bear in the upper right corner (in the usual place for a stamp) in the handwriting of the sender,- the word “Free.” Id. These four items did not appear to be “personal letter mail ... in the usual and generally accepted form.” They were bulky and spongy and masking tape could be seen within around a bulky enclosure. The word “Free” had been typed in rather than written in the hand *973of the sender.2 The items were forwarded to California from a postal officer in Viet Nam who noted their suspicious character and the possibility that they might contain contraband. Because of drug traffic from Southeast Asia the • California, facility was receiving daily a number of items flagged as suspicious and with the suggestion they be examined for contraband and, in fact, contraband was being discovered by such examinations.
Under the circumstances of this case the postal facility could examine the four envelopes without a warrant.

. As the District Judge noted in hearing on a motion to suppress, the handwriting requirement is reasonably related to identifying the person availing himself of the postage-free privilege, should that be necessary. 39 CFR 131.52 also requires that the sender’s name, service number, grade and complete military address appear in the upper left corner of the envelope, but this need not be in the handwriting of the sender.