Court Opinion

ID: 9449712
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:20:37.175511+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:57.340387
License: Public Domain

ALDRICH, Circuit Judge
(concurring) .
This is a case of general importance. As a matter of interpretation I cannot agree with the first paragraph of Judge WOODBURY’S dissent. While I do agree with the first sentence of the second paragraph, it does not lead me to his result. The government’s obligation under the Fourth Amendment to justify the issuance of a warrant is far from a pro forma matter. Marron v. United States, 1927, 275 U.S. 192, 195, 48 S.Ct. 74, 72 L.Ed. 231. This is illustrated by the undisputed rule that deficiencies in its prima facie showing are not remedied by the circumstance that subsequent events prove it was right after all. Byars v. United States, 1927, 273 U.S. 28, 47 S. Ct. 248, 71 L.Ed. 520. I believe it would be bad practice, down-grade the government’s obligation, and lead, at best, to difficult performance of their duties by United States Commissioners, if the government were permitted to cart in a barrow-load of what is hopefully pay dirt and leave it to the commissioner, or ultimately the court, to pan out a possible nugget. In this case out of three and a half printed pages only the one sentence referred to by Judge Woodbury regarding odor is affirmatively identified as being to the personal observation of a government investigator, and even he is not necessarily the affiant. I believe the initial duty should be upon the government to evidence what is reliable and why, and not to introduce a hodge-podge under some general formalistic coverall.
Such a principle is peculiarly appropriate here because if a warrant is to be predicated primarily upon an odor, it is highly desirable that proper weighing may be made of the attendant circumstances. Cf. Johnson v. United States, 1948, 333 U.S. 10, 13, 68 S.Ct. 367, 92 L.Ed. 436.