Court Opinion

ID: 9414076
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-01 23:36:49.721478+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:47:03.889605
License: Public Domain

KING, Chief Judge, specially concurring:
I concur in the judgment reversing the district court’s order denying Hunt’s motion to suppress and in Judge Aldisert’s good opinion for the panel. I write separately to emphasize that the basis for my decision rests in the government’s failure to present any evidence to suggest that the act of leaving a lawfully stopped automobile to greet an officer creates an inference that the automobile contains contraband or weapons. Officer Davidson did articulate a general, fact-based suspicion of sorts, which led to his search of the vehicle. He offered no basis, however, for his suspicion drawn either from his own experience or from the specific facts of this stop. There is nothing in the suppression hearing testimony or in the government’s evidence that allows this court to determine whether his generalized suspicion was reasonable. Officer Davidson’s practice, based on what is, on this record, only a hunch, is not enough.