Court Opinion

ID: 9641362
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:29:55.277351+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:36.864722
License: Public Domain

*516HUXMAN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I think the fair interpretation of the evidence is that Brinegar’s reply to the officer’s inquiry as to how much liquor he had was “Not too much.” Brinegar testified that his reply was “Not too much,” while Malsed, the officer who asked the question, testified that Brinegar replied, “Not so much,” or words to that effect. But I attach no particular significance to the exact words of his reply. In my opinion, the decision in this case does not turn upon whether the statement by Brinegar, after he was stopped and interrogated by .the Alcohol Tax Unit agents, was voluntary or involuntary, or whether it was of such an unequivocal nature as to constitute probable cause for believing that he had liquor which he was transporting in violation of the Federal Law. By the admission of the agents themselves, they did not pursue this car for the purpose of arresting Brinegar. Their testimony makes that very clear. They had no warrant for his arrest. They did not see him commit an act of law violation which would have warranted them in arresting him without a warrant, and they testified that they did not arrest him for fully fifteen minutes after they had stopped him, interrogated him, and found the whisky. What for then did they pursue him down the road with their siren screeching and crowd him off the highway, place him under restraint, and make it impossible for him to proceed. There can only be one answer—-to ascertain whether he had whisky. Ascertaining this constituted a search. Is there any one so naive as to believe that if he had answered that he had no whisky that they could have apologized, begged his pardon for having violated his constitutional rights as well as their oath of office to respect the Constitution, and permitted him to proceed. That they would have searched his car in any event is borne out by the position the Government takes in this appeal, that the condition of the car at the time they first observed it, plus the fact that Brinegar had the reputation with the Alcohol Tax Unit agents of dealing in liquor, constituted probable cause warranting a search without a warrant. In other words, they intended to search this car, and the search was on when the chase began and Brinegar was crowded off the road and prevented from going his lawful way as far as the Alcohol Tax Unit agents were concerned.
In Nueslein v. District of Columbia, App.D.C., 115 F.2d 690, a taxicab had struck a parked car. The officers found the taxi parked about a block and a half from the scene of the accident; they also found the identifying license of the driver. They either opened the door of the house where the car was parked or entered the open door and called out the name of the driver of the cab. He answered from upstairs and stated that he would come down. When he came down, the officers interrogated him and he admitted that he had driven the car and had a drink of beer prior thereto. The court held that the-officers were engaged in a search of the premises.
In United States v. Hanley, D.C., 50 F.2d 465, the agents stopped a truck, ordered the driver to pull over to the curb, then boarded the truck to interrogate him and obtained an admission that he had a load of beer. The court held that this-constituted a search. The facts in this case are indistinguishable in principle from those in these two cases. In the Hanley case, the truck was stopped and boarded for the purpose of interrogating the driver. Here it was stopped, forced to the roadside and surrounded for the purpose of interrogating the driver. As the court said in the Nueslein case when the officers entered the house [115 F.2d 693], “They were just investigating. They were still illegally investigating when the defendant told them that he was driving the cab at the time of the accident.” So here the officers were illegally investigating when they pursued the car, forced it to the side of the road, compelled it to stop, and interrogated the driver. If the acts of the officers in the Nueslein case constituted a search, the acts of the officers in this case likewise constituted a search.
There is a line of cases distinguishable upon the facts from the above cases. In Poulas v. United States, 9 Cir., 95 F.2d 412, the defendant was sitting in his parked *517car when officers came up and questioned him, and he admitted that he had whisky. In Jenkins v. United States, 10 Cir., 161 F.2d 99, the officers followed a truck until it stopped, then drew up behind it, got out and questioned the occupant, and obtained an admission from him. In none of the cases did the officers pursue the defendant under the belief that they had probable cause for searching the automobile without a warrant or under circumstances justifying the conclusion that they were pursuing or stopping the defendant for the purpose of searching his car.
The facts in the Morgan case are not nearly as strong on the question of pursuit as they are in this case. But in any event, this precise point was not raised or decided in that case. The only question discussed and the only thing said was that the admission was voluntary and constituted probable cause for the search. Whether the result of the search could be used as evidence because obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment was not alluded to nor decided in that case. The Morgan case is no authority for the proposition that a voluntary admission, obtained while officers were engaged in a search in violation of the Fourth Amendment, is admissible.
As pointed out by the present Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who wrote the opinion in the Nueslein case, there is a conflict between the Federal Rule and the common law rule, as well as the rule of a number of State courts as to the admissibility of voluntary statements obtained while officers were engaged in conducting a search in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Under the Federal Rule, such statements are inadmissible.1 The admission upon which the Government relies was obtained while agents were engaged in an illegal search of Brinegar’s car. The right of a citizen to be secure from unreasonable searches is not limited to homes. It applies as well and with equal force to “their persons, * * * papers and effects.”
I subscribe fully to the philosophy of the Nueslein case. The personal guarantees of the Constitution are sacred rights. They are the things for which men have died throughout the centuries. Without them in the Constitution, it could not have been adopted and our present system of Government could not have been formed. Whenever a violation of one of these rights is involved, all reasonable presumptions should be resolved against one charged with a violation thereof and the burden should be placed upon him to bring his conduct clearly within the Constitutional power.2
Of course, officers should not be unduly restricted in their efforts to enforce the law, but in no instance are they warranted in violating constitutional immunities in their efforts to enforce the law. Having taken an oath to uphold the law, they should respect the rights of citizens guaranteed thereunder and should not, in their zeal, violate such rights. There is no conduct more unwarranted or offensive than to have an officer, who has taken an oath to uphold the law, pursue a citizen down the road, force him to the ditch, and interrogate him, all without probable cause, in the hope that he may obtain an admission ordinarily admissible under the Fifth Amendment, while engaged in( violation of the Fourth Amendment.
I would, accordingly, reverse and remand with direction to sustain the motion to suppress.

 ln addition to the Nueslein case, see also United States v. Setaro, D.C., 37 F.2d 134; In re Oryell, D.C., 28 F.2d 639; In re Fried, 2 Cir., 161 F.2d 453.

 Nueslein v. District of Columbia, App.D.C., 115 F.2d 690; Gibson v. United States, App.D.C., 149 F.2d 381; United States v. Ruffiner, D.C., 51 F.2d 579; In re Fried, D.C., 68 F.Supp. 961; Go-Bart Co. v. United States, 282 U.S. 344, 51 S.Ct. 153, 75 L.Ed. 374.