Court Opinion

ID: 9462050
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:30:36.370426+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:22.574103
License: Public Domain

MANSFIELD, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
Although I concur in the result reached by the majority, I do so by a somewhat different route.
I am unable to agree with the majority that use of a marijuana-sniffing dog to ascertain the contents of a private bag amounts to some sort of “plain smell,” comparable to a “plain view,” Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 465-68, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971), rather than a search. The essence of a search is the intrusion into an area (whether it be a bag or a room) which the owner or possessor is entitled to enjoy as private. As the majority recognizes, there is no such intrusion when a human being can, with his own senses and without physical investigation, ascertain the contents. And, even though it is stretching the rule somewhat, the police have been permitted to enhance or magnify the human senses with the aid of instruments such as binoculars or flashlights, see cases cited in majority note 3, supra. But that is not the case here where the “nose” being put into others’ business was clearly an intrusion. The police agents here did not smell or see any contraband, nor were their senses enhanced. Their only-indication that marijuana was present was the action of the dog. Their own senses were replaced by the more sensitive nose of the dog in the same manner that a police officer’s ears are replaced by a hidden microphone in areas where he could not otherwise hear because of the inaudibility of the sounds. The illegality of the latter practice in the absence of a search warrant or special circumstances has long been established. E. g., Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967).
There is no legally significant difference between the use of an X-ray machine or magnetometer to invade a closed area in order to detect the presence of a metal pistol or knife, which we have held to be a search, United States v. Albarado, 495 F.2d 799, 802-03 (2d Cir. 1974), and the use of a dog to sniff for marijuana inside a private bag. Each is a non-human means of detecting the contents of a closed area without physically entering into it. The magnetometer ascertains whether there is metal in the hidden space by detecting changes in the magnetic fields surrounding the area of the hidden space. The dog uses its extremely sensitive olfactory nerve to determine whether there are marijuana molecules emanating from the hidden space. Neither constitutes a particularly offensive intrusion, such as ransacking the contents of the hidden space, or exposing a person to indignities in the case of a personal search. But the fact remains that each detects hidden objects without actual entry and without the enhancement of human senses. The fact that the canine’s search is more particularized and discriminate than that of the magnetometer is not a basis for a legal distinction. The important factor is not the relative accuracy of the sensing device but the fact of the intrusion into a closed area otherwise hidden from human view, which is the hallmark of any search. If, as we have held, examination of carry-on luggage and individual passengers by a magnetometer or X-ray machine amounts to a search within the prohibition of the Fourth Amendment because it discloses hidden items within areas where there is a normal expectation of privacy, United States v. Albara-do, supra, 495 F.2d at 802-03, then the intrusion of a sniffing dog in search of marijuana must also fall within that prohibition when directed at hidden areas where there is similarly a normal expectation of privacy.
Setting aside the expectation of privacy issue for a moment, the circumstances justifying a warrantless search of boarding passengers and their hand luggage are not present here. We have upheld warrantless magnetometer searches against Fourth Amendment attack, at *465least where advance notice has been given, on the ground that they represent a minimal intrusion that is necessary and reasonable to protect against the danger to life and property threatened by possible skyjacking. See United States v. Edwards, 498 F.2d 496 (2d Cir. 1974); United States v. Albarado, supra. Here the contraband being sought presents no danger to the passengers or to the airplane itself. Moreover, the baggage was searched after the plane had arrived at its destination and the baggage had been unloaded.
The question, therefore, is whether the dog-search can be upheld on other grounds or whether it penetrated an area as to which there is a normal or justifiable expectation of privacy and thus violated the Fourth Amendment. Surely the use of a dog to sniff an alighting passenger or passerby for the purpose of determining the presence of marijuana on his person would not be permitted any more than would be the use of a sophisticated detection device to search his person for contraband. However, one who consigns luggage to the common baggage area of a public carrier, airport or similar facility cannot expect to enjoy as much privacy with respect to the bag as he would with respect to his person or property carried by him personally into, on or from the carrier or facility. It is common knowledge that luggage turned over to a public carrier will be handled by many persons who, although not permitted to open it without the owner’s permission, may feel it, weigh it, check its locks, straps and seams to insure that it will not fall apart in transit, and shake it to determine whether the contents are fragile or dangerous. See United States v. Johnston, 497 F.2d 397 (9th Cir. 1974).
Since a person’s expectation of privacy with respect to his baggage declines as the anticipated public access to the baggage increases, it is not unreasonable, where the police have reasonable grounds to suspect the presence of contraband, to permit use of an external method or device to determine whether the baggage contains contraband. On this ground I would uphold the search here. However, I would strictly limit such a search to cases where there are grounds for such suspicion, similar to or stronger than that present here, and would not permit a wholesale examination of all baggage in the hope that a crime might be detected. Otherwise, as the majority recognizes, the spectre of a “Big Brother” baggage search, uncurbed by the Fourth Amendment, would then loom much larger on the horizon. As more sophisticated detection devices are developed in the future, such a broad authority would be an open invitation to conduct blanket examinations, thus eroding the principles underlying the Fourth Amendment itself.