Court Opinion

ID: 9466215
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:08:23.607427+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:36.260434
License: Public Domain

KENNEDY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent from this holding, which invalidates authority that has been exercised, and accepted as correct, for almost two hundred years. In addition, this case puts the Ninth Circuit directly at odds with the Fifth Circuit. See United States v. Postal, 589 F.2d 862, 889 (5th Cir. 1979), petition for cert. filed, 47 U.S.L.W. 3829 (U.S. Apr. 14, 1979) (No. 78-1714); United States v. Freeman, 579 F.2d 942, 946-47 (5th Cir. 1978); United States v. Warren, 578 F.2d 1058, 1064-65 (5th Cir. 1978) (en banc). The facts are not in dispute, and this case presents the single issue of the constitutionality of random safety checks by the Coast Guard of pleasure craft being operated within United States territorial waters.
*362Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979) is not dispositive of the issue here. Prouse does not establish a rule against all random stops; it concerns automobiles only. In reaching its conclusion in Prouse, the Court “balanc[ed] the public interest against the individual’s Fourth Amendment interests.” Id. at 657, 99 S.Ct. at 1397-98. Random safety checks of vessels by the Coast Guard present considerations very different from random automobile stops, and a different rule is therefore required. Cf. id. at 664, 99 S.Ct. 1391. (Blackmun, J., concurring) (random inspections by game wardens not foreclosed by Prouse).
In Prouse, the case turned on the facts (or lack of them) concerning the effectiveness of random stops. The Court noted that “the percentage of all drivers on the road who are driving without a license is small and that the number of licensed drivers who will be stopped in order to find one unlicensed operator will be large indeed.” Id. at 659-60, 99 S.Ct. at 1399. From this the Court concluded that “the spot check does not appear sufficiently productive to qualify as a reasonable law-enforcement practice.” Id. at 600. With respect to minimum vehicle safety requirements, the Court noted that many violations are observable and further that vehicle safety is effectively policed through the requirement of an annual safety inspection. Finally, the Court suggested that road block-type stops would be a permissible alternative to random stops.
This case is quite different from Prouse. Unlike automobile stops, random Coast Guard safety checks are a highly effective means of discovering safety violations. In 1977, the Coast Guard boarded 3,245 pleasure craft in the San Francisco Bay area for safety checks; of those, 40% were found to be not in compliance with safety regulations. In further contrast to automobiles, most of the essential items of safety equipment, i. e., life preservers, engine flame arrestors, horns, and fire extinguishers, are not observable without boarding the vessel because this equipment is primarily found or properly kept below deck.
Finally, the less intrusive alternatives of the type dispositive in Prouse, such as annual inspections and road block-type stops, are not available in this case. This case involves a pleasure boat, and the controlling safety regulations only apply to pleasure boats when in use. 46 U.S.C. § 1461(c). This permits the boat owner to store the removable safety devices at home where they are safer from theft and the elements until he is ready to go sailing. Dockside inspection of a boat is therefore completely ineffective. Moreover, the alternative of a roadblock stop is unavailable on the water; there are no roads and generally no convenient thoroughfares to block. The sea does not lend itself to a safe, orderly queue for the systematic check of vessels. Whereas automobiles can be safely parked in a line on a solid, nonmoving surface, vessels are, by their nature, forced to contend with the vagaries of sea, wind, current, and oceanographic conditions, all constantly in a state of flux. And from the law enforcement standpoint, the possibility of vessels entering or leaving international waters from a vast coastal domain presents a much greater problem than that presented by vehicles which, generally speaking, can cross international borders only at manned checkpoints. In the instant case a seagoing vessel was stopped just a few miles from the Golden Gate Bridge.
The majority offers a less intrusive alternative, that is, to conduct these safety checks during the day. Even aside from the obvious impracticality of the suggestion as a means of enforcing inspection against the willful violators, this novel theory ignores the fact that safety violations at night may be more dangerous than those during the day — dangerous both to passengers and to those who may be called upon to effect a rescue. Further, I think it important to note that in this case the boat was not anchored but was underway. Searches at night may be more intrusive because they raise the specter of uniformed officers rousing people from their sleep. But where the boat is underway, it is clear that someone is, or ought to be, awake.
*363My conclusion is that Prouse does not control this case and that we must turn instead to other sources. Based on the historical acceptance of Coast Guard document and cargo inspections of vessels and based also on the special rules that apply to certain administrative searches, see United States v. Biswell, 406 U.S. 311, 92 S.Ct. 1593, 32 L.Ed.2d 87 (1972), Colonnade Catering Corp. v. United States, 397 U.S. 72, 90 S.Ct. 774, 25 L.Ed.2d 60 (1970), I would hold that random safety checks of vessels are not unreasonable within the meaning of the fourth amendment.
The Fifth Circuit has concluded, it seems, that it is constitutional for the Coast Guard to board vessels to conduct documentation and safety checks without probable cause or particular suspicion. See United States v. Postal, 589 F.2d 862, 889 (5th Cir. 1979), petition for cert. filed, 47 U.S.L.W. 3829 (U.S. Apr. 14, 1979) (No. 78-1714); United States v. Freeman, 579 F.2d 942, 946-47 (5th Cir. 1978); United States v. Warren, 578 F.2d 1058, 1064-65 (5th Cir. 1978) (en banc).1
Statutory authority for boarding is granted in explicit terms by 14 U.S.C. § 89(a) which permits Coast Guard officers to “at any time go on board of any vessel subject to the jurisdiction, or to the operation of any law, of the United States, address inquiries to those on board, examine the ship’s documents and papers, and examine, inspect, and search the vessel” (emphasis added). The statute imposes no requirement that a search be based on probable cause or even on a reasonable suspicion. See United States v. Warren, 578 F.2d 1058, 1065-66 (5th Cir. 1978) (en banc). Cf. United States v. Freeman, 579 F.2d 942, 945 (5th Cir. 1978) (interpreting similar language of 19 U.S.C. § 1581(a)).
The powers of the Coast Guard to board vessels originated in the First Congress. Section 31 of the Revenue Cutter Service Act provide:
That it shall be lawful for all collectors, naval officers, surveyors, inspectors, and the officers of the revenue cutters . to go on board of ships or vessels in any part of the United States, or within four leagues of the coast thereof, if bound to the United States, whether in or out of their respective districts, for the purposes of demanding the manifests aforesaid, and of examining and searching the said ships or vessels; and the said officers respectively shall have free access to the cabin, and every other part of a ship or vessel .
1 Stat. 164 (1790). See 1 Stat. 315 (1793). This statute places no limitations on the power of inspectors to board and search vessels and, because it was an enactment of the same Congress which proposed the fourth amendment, is of great significance. In United States v. Ramsey, 431 U.S. 606, 616-19, 97 S.Ct. 1972, 52 L.Ed.2d 617 (1977), the Supreme Court, in holding that border searches made without warrant or probable cause are “reasonable” within the meaning of the fourth amendment, cited similar enactments of the First Congress and placed great reliance on the understanding of that body as to the scope of the fourth amendment. See Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 623, 6 S.Ct. 524, 29 L.Ed. 746 (1886).
The determination by the First Congress of the constitutionality of certain vessel searches without probable cause or suspicion has continued to modern times.2 The *3641790 provision remained essentially unchanged until 1866 when Congress enacted an anti-smuggling law. 14 Stat. 178 (1866). That statute, like section 31 before it, permitted customs officers “to go on board any vessel . . . and to inspect, search and examine the same.” Id. at § 2 (emphasis added). Significantly, the Act made a distinction between searches of vessels and searches of the landlocked counterparts of vessels. Unlike the unqualified authority of officials to stop and search vessels, their authority to “stop, search, and examine . any vehicle, beast or person” was limited to cases where the official “shall suspect” a customs violation, and trunks or envelopes could be opened only where there was “reasonable cause to suspect” a violation. Id. at § 3.
The view that vessels are not entitled to the same fourth amendment protections as their landlocked counterparts was reasserted in a concurrence by Justices Brandéis and Holmes:
There is no limitation upon the right of the sovereign to seize without a warrant vessels registered under its laws, similar to that imposed by the common law and the Constitution upon the arrest of persons and upon the seizure of “papers and effects.”
Maul v. United States, 274 U.S. 501, 524, 47 S.Ct. 735, 744, 71 L.Ed. 1171 (1927) (Brandeis, J., concurring). Several years later, in enacting the predecessor of 14 U.S.C. § 89(a), Act of June 22, 1936, ch. 705, 49 Stat. 1820, Congress specifically relied on the Brandeis-Holmes concurrence, see H.R. Rep. No. 2452, 74th Cong., 2d Sess. (1936).
The unbroken chain of 200 years of authorization for the Coast Guard to board vessels to examine their documents and cargo without the requirement of a warrant, probable cause or particular suspicion is, I submit, persuasive authority for the reasonableness of such boardings, authority that is not overcome by the reasoning of the majority. See Colonnade Catering Corp. v. United States, 397 U.S. 72, 75, 90 S.Ct. 774, 25 L.Ed.2d 60 (1970).
In addition, however, I think that Coast Guard document and safety checks fall within the exception for administrative searches delineated in United States v. Biswell, 406 U.S. 311, 92 S.Ct. 1593, 32 L.Ed.2d 87 (1972), and Colonnade Catering Corp. v. United States, 397 U.S. 72, 90 S.Ct. 774, 25 L.Ed.2d 60 (1970). At issue is an important government objective of insuring safety. Inspection of pleasure boats while in use is crucial to the regulatory scheme. Because most of the safety devices in question are not visible to a passing vessel, even the requirement of a particular suspicion would completely frustrate the scheme. Moreover, as in Biswell, in order for inspections of pleasure craft to be an effective deterrent to violation of safety requirements, unannounced inspections of boats in use are essential. See 406 U.S. at 316, 92 S.Ct. 1593. This is an area which historically has been subject to federal regulation.
Finally, I do not believe that in this case the safety check constituted a substantial invasion of privacy. As the Fifth Circuit has pointed out, search of certain portions of a vessel, such as the crew’s quarters on an ocean-going tanker or a locked compartment on the bridge, may constitute substantial invasions of privacy. See United States v. Whitmire, 595 F.2d 1303, 1312 (5th Cir. 1979); United States v. Whitaker, 592 F.2d 826, 830 (5th Cir. 1979). This case, however, does not require us to delineate those areas of the vessel the officer may properly enter to conduct a safety or document check. Here, once the officer boarded the vessel, the evidence was in plain view. I do not believe that by merely stepping onto the exposed decks of the boat the Coast Guard officer invaded an area in which the defendants had a legitimate expectation of privacy. See United States v. Odneal, 565 F.2d 598, 601 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 952, 98 S.Ct. 1581, 55 L.Ed.2d 803 (1977). Two hundred years of history make it plain that there is no legitimate expectation of privacy in this instance.
For these reasons, I would Reverse.

. These cases generally support that proposition by mere citation to two previous Fifth Circuit cases, United States v. One 43 Foot Sailing Vessel, 538 F.2d 694 (5th Cir. 1976), and United States v. Odom, 526 F.2d 339, 341 — 42 (5th Cir. 1976), which do not include any discussion of the possible constitutional problems of a random boarding that is not based on reasonable suspicion. In One 43 Foot Sailing Vessel, the Fifth Circuit affirmed on the basis of the district court opinion. United States v. One 43 Foot Sailing Vessel, 405 F.Supp. 879 (S.D.Fla.1975). The district court opinion includes a brief constitutional analysis, in which the court holds only that a warrant or probable cause are not required. Because the court concludes that the Coast Guard had cause for searching the vessel, it did not reach the issue of whether some particular suspicion is necessary. 405 F.Supp. at 883.

. The statutory history is traced in Carmichael, At Sea with the Fourth Amendment, 32 U.Miami L.Rev. 51 (1977).