Court Opinion

ID: 9469776
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:48:59.730961+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:33.855188
License: Public Domain

BLOCH, District Judge,
dissenting.
The majority upholds the warrant, read in conjunction with the incorporated affidavit, because it confines the search authorized to evidence of a single crime. I respectfully dissent for two reasons: first, the warrant is too ambiguous to be construed specifically; and, second, assuming arguendo that the warrant limits the search to evidence of a single crime, the warrant does not describe with particularity the items to be seized.
Without engaging in a hypertechnical analysis, one can see that the warrant is subject to several interpretations. The trial court, reading paragraph (a) in a common sense fashion, found that the warrant authorized a search for the evidence or fruits of any crime. The majority, noting that the warrant is limited by the language of the entire affidavit, would confine the crime under investigation to the manufacture of methamphetamines. While there are several references to methamphetamines in the affidavit, the first paragraph of the affidavit duplicates the warrant, which refers to “illegal controlled drugs,” “the illegal manufacture of drugs," and the “illegal sale of controlled substances.” The second paragraph of the affidavit refers to the crime of manufacture of a Schedule II controlled substance as set forth in the Delaware Revised Code, which would involve the manufacture of any of approximately 30 drugs. The facts listed in the third paragraph of the affidavit include an informant’s tip that the defendant was selling methamphetamines. Thus, read as a whole, what the warrant and affidavit seem to authorize is a search for evidence of the manufacture, sale, or possession of any of the 30 controlled substances listed in Schedule II of § 4752, Title 16 of the Delaware Revised Code of 1974.
The problem with this construction of the warrant and the majority’s is that it assumes too much. There are at least three common sense interpretations of the war*67rant: the trial court’s, the majority’s and the one set forth in this dissent.1 A warrant subject to such divergent interpretations can hardly be characterized as leaving nothing to the discretion of the executing officer. Marron v. United States, 275 U.S. 192, 196, 48 S.Ct. 74, 76, 72 L.Ed. 231 (1927). If the scope of the warrant is uncertain, it allows the executing officer to read it as broadly as he desires — to do precisely what an officer in this particular case suggested, to “go back and see ... if we missed anything.” (Johnson Appendix, p. 105).
The majority cites no case in support of its proposition that a warrant which limits the search to evidence of a single crime is not a general warrant. The majority correctly points out that the Supreme Court upheld a warrant in Andresen v. Maryland, 427 U.S. 463, 96 S.Ct. 2737, 49 L.Ed.2d 627 (1976), which included a broad phrase permitting a search for what the majority described as evidence of the crime described earlier in the sentence. (Majority opinion, at 64). The majority failed to note that four times the Supreme Court identified the crime referred to in the same sentence as “the crime of false pretenses with respect to Lot 13T.” 427 U.S. at 480-482, 96 S.Ct. at 2748-2749. Andresen can only be consulted for guidance as to whether a warrant, read as a whole, meets the requirement of particularity when the crime is so specifically described that no doubt is left as to the object of the search.
A narrower basis for upholding the warrant would be that the warrant authorizes a search for evidence pertaining to a crime involving illegal drugs. The Supreme Court has implied in dicta that a less exacting standard of specificity may be applied to the description of contraband.2 However, it is unclear whether illegal drugs could be used as a generic description of the items sought in this particular case. In both United States v. Dennis, 625 F.2d 782 (8th Cir. 1980) and Grimaldi v. United States, 606 F.2d 332 (1st Cir. 1979), which were cited by the majority as upholding less precise descriptions of items sought, the circuit courts indicated that generic descriptions are allowable where “the precise identity of goods cannot be ascertained at the time the warrant is issued.” Dennis, at 792. See Grimaldi, at 338. One cannot seriously contend in the instant case that the officers were unable to ascertain the specific drug sought. Indeed, it is the majority’s position that the affidavit clearly identifies the class of drugs as methamphetamines.
The danger in allowing a generic description when the officers know the particular drug sought is best illustrated by the case of United States v. Rettig, 589 F.2d 418 (9th Cir. 1978). In the Rettig case, Drug Enforcement Agency agents sought a warrant from a federal magistrate to search for cocaine on defendant’s premises. When the magistrate refused to issue the search warrant on the ground that the information supplied by the agents was stale, the agents prepared another affidavit and submitted it to a state court judge stating that their purpose was to search for evidence of possession of marijuana by the same defendant. The state judge issued the search warrant, and the agents conveniently found the cocaine while executing it. The Ninth Circuit suppressed all the evidence seized because the agents had interpreted and executed the warrant as “an instrument for conducting a general search.” 589 F.2d at 423. To allow agents to describe drugs generieally when the agents know the particular drugs sought would allow agents in *68a Rettig situation to subvert the requirements of probable cause as well as particularity.3
Though the officers in the instant case did not employ the opprobrious tactics used by the officers in Rettig to obtain a warrant, the admitted purpose of the search was to “see ... if we missed anything.” (Johnson Appendix, p. 105). “Anything” cannot be construed as including only methamphetamines and associated paraphernalia because marijuana was also found in the first search. (Johnson Appendix, pp. 98, 301). Thus, the officers were given a license to conduct a general search through issuance of this warrant.
Assuming arguendo that the warrant limits the search to evidence of the manufacture of methamphetamines, the items set forth in paragraph (c) do not describe the evidence sought with particularity. The items to be seized as evidence of the manufacture of methamphetamines do not constitute contraband per se and are not readily distinguishable from ordinary household goods.4 At least one of the agents involved in the instant investigation had taken a course in identification of equipment used in the manufacture of drugs (Johnson Appendix, p. 157). Given the amount of time the officers had to seek a proper warrant and their knowledge of what they expected to find, there is no reason why the type of papers and equipment sought and the chemicals and drugs involved could not have been specifically identified.
General exploratory searches must not be condoned. Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 467, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 2038, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971). This Circuit’s recent decision of United States v. Howard Christine, 687 F.2d 749 (3d Cir. 1982), which permits redaction of invalid severable portions of a search warrant, makes it more important than ever that general warrants be identified as such. The court in Christine emphasized that the “cost to society of sanctioning the use of general warrants — abhorrence for which gave birth to the Fourth Amendment — -is intolerable by any measure.” At 758.

. I wholeheartedly agree with Judge Adams’ statement in his concurring opinion that this is a matter about which “courts may differ.” Indeed, another Delaware federal district court has since held this warrant form invalid, adopting the rationale used by the lower court in this case. See United States v. Edwin J. Swan, 545 F.Supp. 799 (D.Del., 1982). In reaching different conclusions as to its validity, the courts may be interpreting the warrant differently. This is my point: executing officers will also interpret it differently. Thus, it does not prevent them from exercising discretion.

. See Stanford v. Texas, 379 U.S. 476, 486, 85 S.Ct. 506, 512, 13 L.Ed.2d 431 (1965); Steele v. United States No. 1, 267 U.S. 498, 504, 45 S.Ct. 414, 416, 69 L.Ed. 757 (1925); and, Marcus v. Search Warrant, 367 U.S. 717, 731, 81 S.Ct. 1708, 1715, 6 L.Ed.2d 1127 (1961).

. The First Circuit Court of Appeals has formulated a two-point test for determining whether contraband may be described generically, which may avoid the problems posed by Rettig: “[F]irst . .. the evidence presented to a magistrate must establish that there is reason to believe that a large collection of similar contraband is present on the premises to be searched, and second, .. . the evidence before the magistrate must explain the method by which the executing agents are to differentiate the contraband from the rest of defendant’s inventory.” United States v. Cortellesso, 601 F.2d 28, 31 (1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1072, 100 S.Ct. 1016, 62 L.Ed.2d 753 (1980). In the instant case, the evidence before the magistrate did not meet either part of the test.

. In the instant case, the items seized included a measuring cup, a plastic bag, a can of alcohol, and a rubber hose.