Court Opinion

ID: 9470642
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:11:47.024466+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:01.586973
License: Public Domain

BOOGHEVER, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I believe that Judge Merrill’s opinion is in accord with our decisions in United States *366v. Piner, 608 F.2d 358 (1979), and United States v. Watson, 678 F.2d 765 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, -U.S.-, 103 S.Ct. 451, 74 L.Ed.2d 605 (1982). In Piner, we concluded that a stop after dark must be for cause and added the dictum that the boarding “must be conducted under administrative standards so drafted that the decision to search is not left to the sole discretion of the Coast Guard officer.” 608 F.2d at 361. Here, we are confronted with an administrative order removing discretion.
It is contended that the document inspection might be considered a pretext, as one of the purposes of the administrative order as indicated by its code name of “Merry Jane” was an attempt to interdict the traffic of marijuana into the United States. That contention has been answered by Watson, which holds that even if a purpose of the boarding is to stop smuggling it is permissible if the stop and search had an “independent administrative justification, and did not exceed in scope what was permissible under that administrative justification.” 678 F.2d at 761.
We should therefor look to the scope of the boarding activity under the particular circumstances involved. Those living on their boats have a greater expectation of privacy at night. See United States v. Piner, 608 F.2d 358 (9th Cir. 1979). The boarding in this case, however, involved no invasion of sleeping quarters. Wickstrom, in charge of the boarding party of two, testified that the only purpose of the boarding was to verify the vessel’s compliance with safety and document regulations. Once aboard, the officers did not appreciably move from their positions on deck. They asked the master to retrieve the documentation papers from the cabin and did not enter it themselves. The marijuana which was seized was seen in plain view from the officers’ positions above deck. The boarding, itself, involved no intrusion into the living quarters of the Reverie crew.
As was stated in United States v. Streifel, 665 F.2d 414 (2d Cir. 1981), there is
... no basis for denying the government the use of investigatory stops at sea in the fact that many vessels include living quarters for their owners or their crew. While one has a more legitimate expectation of privacy in one’s living quarters than in other areas, this expectation has greater relevance to the scope of a search than to the intrusiveness of a stop.
665 F.2d at 423.
I would confine our holding to the facts of this case, leaving for another day a decision as to whether a more intrusive search could be performed at night.
I also concur in the result for another reason. The facts justifying the stop are adequately summarized in footnote 1 of the opinion. Under those circumstances I believe that the boarding was justified under Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), as based on reasonable suspicion.