Court Opinion

ID: 9498748
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:27:02.860422+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:02.968173
License: Public Domain

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
In this age of increasing government surveillance, lawful and unlawful, and of the retention of all our deeds and thoughts on computers long after we may believe they have been removed, it is important that courts not grow lax in their duty to protect our right to privacy and that they remain vigilant against efforts to weaken our Fourth Amendment protections. It is easy for courts to lose sight of these objectives when the government seeks to obtain evidence of child pornography or narcotics violations. Here, I believe, our court is making an unfortunate error. Let me be clear — no one is suggesting “fly-specking” this case. What is needed instead is a sensitivity to constitutional principles.
The government purports to apply the “totality of the circumstances” test when assessing whether there was a “fair probability” that Gourde possessed illegal images on his computer at the time the warrant was issued. In reaching its conclusion that a fair probability did exist, the majority ignores a critical circumstance: At the time the government sought the warrant, it possessed direct evidence that established whether Gourde *1075in fact had or had not downloaded illegal images to his computer (and thus had them in his possession), yet the government chose not to avail itself of that information. It offered no excuse for its failure to do so, despite the critical nature of the evidence it possessed. The government’s actions might fairly be said, at the least, to have constituted “conscious avoidance.”
Had the government not had the critical, indeed dispositive, evidence in its possession, the evidence that is set forth in the affidavit might have been sufficient to support a finding of probable cause.1 However, when the government’s failure to examine the critical evidence is considered along with the limited information proffered in the affidavit, it cannot be said that, all things considered, there was a “fair probability” that evidence that Gourde violated 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252 or 2252A would be found on his computer.2'
Possessing a computer that would reveal whether the defendant had downloaded child pornography and declining to examine it is similar to possessing pictures of a murder in progress and failing to look at them before seeking an arrest warrant for someone thought to be a suspect. In such circumstance, unless probable cause was irrefutably established without the disposi-tive evidence, an evaluation of the totality of the circumstances, both affirmative and negative, would require a finding of lack of probable cause. The “lack” could be resolved quickly by an examination of the evidence in the government’s possession. Until then, however, the evidence would simply be too problematic; given the government’s unexplained behavior it would fall short of meeting the “fair probability” test. Certainly, a “common-sense” analy*1076sis would tell the magistrate, if he knew of the government’s omission, that something was wrong. Had the magistrate been advised of all the relevant facts, I doubt that he would have issued the warrant; rather, I would expect he would have told the government to go away and come back after it had looked at the website owner’s computer and determined whether there was indeed probable cause.
The majority improperly brushes aside the importance of the government’s ability to determine whether Gourde had downloaded or received illegal images. It argues that it did not need to prove that Gourde definitely downloaded or received illegal images in order to show that there was a “fair probability” that he possessed such images on his computer. Ante at 1073. That is certainly true — but it is not the issue in the present case. In concluding that the government’s ability to determine Gourde’s download history is immaterial to the probable cause analysis, the majority confuses two different types of information: evidence that the government could have obtained but that it did not possess at the time it applied for a warrant, and evidence that the government had in its possession at the time it applied for the warrant but did not utilize — evidence that would have answered the question whether there was probable cause. This case involves the latter type. Although the government certainly need not provide definitive proof that an individual downloaded or otherwise received illegal images on his computer to establish probable cause, when it has critical evidence in its possession but decides to avoid becoming aware of the content, it creates a “circumstance” which casts substantial doubt on the probability that the individual does in fact possess illegal images.
When this circumstance is properly weighed along with the others relied upon by the majority, it can no longer be said that the record before the magistrate judge showed a “fair probability” that Gourde downloaded or otherwise received illegal images. The record makes three things clear: First, Gourde paid for a membership in a website that contained both legal and illegal images in unknown proportions (i.e., a “mixed” website).3 Second, the government had the ability to determine — without any significant expenditure of time or effort — from the evidence it possessed whether Gourde had ever downloaded any images from Lolita-gurls.com and, if so, whether any of those images were illegal.4 Third, the affidavit that the government offered in support of the warrant provided no evidence that Gourde had ever downloaded any images, legal or illegal, from the website. The “totality of the[se] circumstances” gives rise to one of two conclusions. At best, the “totality of the circumstances” indicates that the government engaged in “conscious avoidance” and deliberately chose not to avail itself of the information in its possession that would have established whether Gourde downloaded or possessed illegal images before seeking the *1077warrant. At worst, the “totality of the circumstances” suggests that the government did access that information and found that Gourde had not downloaded any illegal images, but sought the warrant anyway.5 Neither “logic” nor “common sense” — to use the guideposts the majority identifies as central to the “totality-of-the-circumstances analysis,” ante at 1071'— provides an answer to the government’s irregular behavior. In the absence of some explanation of its failure to provide the magistrate with the evidence in its possession, I do not believe that it can properly establish probable cause.
Perhaps if no evidence as to whether an individual had in fact downloaded or otherwise received illegal images was in the government’s possession, membership in a “mixed” website alone would be sufficient to establish a “fair probability” that the individual possessed such images on his computer. Perhaps not. That case is not before us. Here, the government admitted that, at the time it applied for the warrant, it possessed evidence that could have determined conclusively whether Gourde had downloaded or received illegal images as a result of his membership in the “mixed” website. Yet, it failed to provide the court with this dispositive evidence. Regrettably, the majority ignores this critical fact. In doing so, it fails to consider the “totality of the circumstances.” Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.

. On this basis, Gourde had a valid Franks claim, in that material omissions from the affidavit led the magistrate to issue a warrant for which there was no probable cause. See Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 156, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978). Under Franks, if a criminal defendant establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that an officer recklessly omitted material information from the affidavit, and if the affidavit considered with the omitted evidence is insufficient to establish probable cause, then the “warrant must be voided and the fruits of the search excluded to the same extent as if probable cause was lacking.” Id. Here, the affidavit omitted material information which, if considered along with the material in the affidavit, would have required a finding of a lack of probable cause.
The majority argues that it is irrelevant that the government failed to examine the critical evidence it had in its possession, claiming that “the benchmark is not what the FBI could have' done. An affidavit may support probable cause even if the government fails to obtain potentially dispositive information.” Ante at 1073 n. 5. The majority misses the point. In the cases the majority relies upon to support its argument, the potentially dis-positive evidence was not in the government’s possession at the time it applied for the search warrant. In that circumstance, the courts held, the government is not required to go beyond the facts in its possession and obtain additional evidence through further investigation. See United States v. Miller, 753 F.2d 1475, 1479-81 (9th Cir.1985); United States v. Ozar, 50 F.3d 1440, 1446 (8th Cir. 1995); United States v. Dale, 991 F.2d 819, 844 (D.C.Cir. 1993). Here, however, the government already had acquired the dispositive facts, but failed to avail itself of them or to mention in the affidavit that, as a result of having seized the computer of the owner and operator of Lolitagurls.com, it possessed the records of what images, if any, had been sent to Gourde through the website. Nothing in the cases cited by the majority even suggests that the government's failure to disclose that it possessed but did not examine dispositive evidence before it sought a warrant is anything other than a material omission relevant to the magistrate’s determination of probable cause.

. Although the majority labels the website a "child pornography site,” it was in fact "mixed” — that is, it contained both legal images (such as adult pornography) as well as illegal ones.

. The majority argues that "[wjhether the FBI could or would have found such data ... is not clear from the record.” Ante at 1072. However, the majority’s claim ignores strong evidence to the contrary in the record. During the suppression hearing, Special Agent David Moriguchi, who applied for the warrant to search Gourde's home and computer, testified that four months before the FBI sought the Gourde search warrant, the FBI had seized the computer of the owner and operator of Lolitagurls.com, and that the seized computer contained the information about what images, if any, had been sent to Gourde through the website.

. We must consider the circumstances as they existed at the time the warrant was sought by the government, not what we know to be the circumstances after the search. At the time the warrant was issued, these were the two possible conclusions that could have been drawn from the government's failure to include in the affidavit the information contained in the seized computer.