Court Opinion

ID: 9603927
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:11:28.759461+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:18.171351
License: Public Domain

ELLINGTON, Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur fully in the majority opinion. As illustrated by the several opinions in this case, this is an unsettled area of the law in Georgia and across the nation. Like the majority, I favor the adoption of a bright-line rule precluding police officers from conducting a warrant-less search if any co-occupant of the premises at issue is present and communicates an objection to the officers. I write separately to add that I believe such a rule is necessary to protect the right to privacy while at the same time giving clear direction to law enforcement. I believe the right to privacy demands that, in close calls, we adhere closely to the general principle that warrantless searches are per se unreasonable and unconstitutional. Exigency and consent, as exceptions to this general rule, should be drawn as narrowly as possible. When one co-occupant consents, the law allows police officers to presume all other (absent or silent) co-occupants had no expectation of privacy. But where a co-occupant is present and objecting, any presumption of a lack of an expectation of privacy should yield to that affirmative assertion of the right to be free of warrantless searches. I believe we unreasonably burden law enforcement officers when we require them to stake the later admissibility of any evidence seized on their ability to immediately and fully divine a consenter’s relationship to the premises and to the objecting co-occupant as well as the consenter’s motives in giving consent to search.
I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Smith and Judge Miller join in this special concurrence.