Court Opinion

ID: 9428037
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:22:37.240752+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:11.318312
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Marshall,
with whom Mr. Justice Brennan joins, dissenting.
Today the Court overrules the “automatic standing” rule of Jones v. United States, 362 U. S. 257 (1960), because it concludes that the rationale underpinning the rule has been “eroded,” ante, at 89. I do not share that view.
A defendant charged with a possessory offense who moves to suppress the items he is charged with possessing must now establish at the suppression hearing that the police conduct of which he complains violated his personal Fourth Amendment rights. In many cases, a defendant will be able to make the required showing only by taking the stand and testifying about his interest in the place searched and the evidence *96seized; the need for the defendant’s own testimony may, in fact, be more likely to arise in possession cases than in cases involving other types of offenses. The holding in Jones was premised, in part, on the unfairness of “pinion [ing] a defendant within th[e] dilemma,” 362 U. S., at 262, of being able to assert his Fourth Amendment claim only by relinquishing his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. The Court finds that this dilemma no longer exists because Simmons v. United States, 390 U. S. 377 (1968), held that testimony given by a defendant in support of a motion to suppress “may not thereafter be admitted against him at trial on the issue of guilt unless he makes no objection.” Id., at 394.
I cannot agree that Simmons provides complete protection against the “self-incrimination dilemma,” Brown v. United States, 411 U. S. 223, 228 (1973). Respondents contend that the testimony given at the suppression hearing might be held admissible for impeachment purposes and, while acknowledging that that question is not before us in this case, the majority broadly hints that this is so. Ante, at 94, n. 9; see Harris v. New York, 401 U. S. 222 (1971); United States v. Kahan, 415 U. S. 239 (1974); United States v. Havens, 446 U. S. 620 (1980); Jenkins v. Anderson, 447 U. S. 231 (1980); but see New Jersey v. Portash, 440 U. S. 450 (1979). The use of the testimony for impeachment purposes would subject a defendant to precisely the same dilemma, unless he was prepared to relinquish his constitutional right to testify in his own defense, and would thereby create a strong deterrent to asserting Fourth Amendment claims. One of the purposes of Jones and Simmons was to remove such obstacles. See Simmons, supra, at 392-394. Moreover, the opportunity for cross-examination at the suppression hearing may enable the prosecutor to elicit incriminating information beyond that offered on direct examination to establish the requisite Fourth Amendment interest. Even if such information could not be introduced at the subsequent trial, it might be helpful to the prosecution in developing its case or deciding its trial strategy. The fur*97nishing of such a tactical advantage to the prosecution should not be the price of asserting a Fourth Amendment claim. Simmons, therefore, does not eliminate the possibility that a defendant will be deterred from presenting a Fourth Amendment claim because of “the risk that the words which he utters may later be used to incriminate him.” Simmons, supra, at 393. Accordingly, I conclude that this part of the reasoning in Jones remains viable.
A second ground for relieving the defendant charged with possession from the necessity of showing “an interest in the premises searched or the property seized” was that “to hold to the contrary . . . would be to permit the Government to have the advantage of contradictory positions as a basis for conviction,” Jones, 362 U. S., at 263. That is, since “possession both convicts and confers standing,” ibid., the Government, which had charged the defendant with possession, would not be permitted to deny that he had standing. By holding today in Rawlings v. Kentucky, post, p. 98, that a person may assert a Fourth Amendment claim only if he has a privacy interest in the area that was searched, the Court has, to be sure, done away with that logical inconsistency. For reasons stated in my dissenting opinion in that case, I believe that holding is diametrically opposed to the meaning of the Fourth Amendment as it has always been understood.
In sum, I find neither of the Court’s grounds for abandoning Jones persuasive. The automatic standing rule is a salutary one which protects the rights of defendants and eliminates the wasteful requirement of making a preliminary showing of standing in pretrial proceedings involving pos-sessory offenses, where the charge itself alleges an interest sufficient to support a Fourth Amendment claim. I dissent.