Court Opinion

ID: 9462089
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:31:46.543956+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:23.898692
License: Public Domain

SWYGERT, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the reversal on the narrow ground that the defendant did not have any proprietary or possessory interest in Hunt’s automobile at the time of the search and that nothing contained in the stipulated facts suggests any other basis
upon which Lisk could ground a contention that his privacy rights were violated by the opening of the trunk, or that the facts of this case require an application of the extraordinary standing concepts developed in NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449, 458-60, 78 S.Ct. 1163, 2 L.Ed.2d 1488 (1958), and Barrows v. Jackson, 346 U.S. 249, 73 S.Ct. 1031, 97 L.Ed. 1586 (1953), to allow him to contest the search. See Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 174, 89 S.Ct. 961, 22 L.Ed.2d 176 (1968). Once the trunk of the Hunt auto was opened, I agree that the police officers properly (in reference to Lisk) seized the pipe bomb inasmuch as it appeared to be an explosive device by its very configuration. I would emphasize that there is no indication in the record of this case that the search of Hunt’s auto was directed at Lisk. Had this been shown, my position regarding Lisk’s standing to contest that search would be different, see Alderman, supra; Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 261, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960), as would my view on the question of whether the search of Hunt’s auto violated Lisk’s own right to privacy under the Fourth Amendment. See Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 350-52, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967). On this latter question it is my belief that a *232person has a legitímate expectation that the Government, in pursuing him for whatever reason, will not intentionally and unreasonably violate the proprietary rights of others in order to seize property given to these others for safekeeping. It seems to me that this expectation falls within the privacy concepts which in part underlie the Fourth Amendment and is therefore protected by its proscription of unreasonable searches. Absent exigent circumstances, a warrant alone can legitimize such an intrusion.