Court Opinion

ID: 9494688
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:44:08.993224+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:17.124479
License: Public Domain

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the judgment.
The majority has covered a wide variety of police questioning situations in which, for an assortment of reasons, the Fourth Amendment may not impose a limitation on the scope of those police investigations. Conspicuously, however, the majority has declined to follow the course of judicial restraint and to answer, or even pose, the question that would likely make the rest of its discussion superfluous. Did Officer Chiola have grounds for reasonable suspicion that Childs possessed marijuana? For, if Officer Chiola had such grounds, he could certainly ask questions about drugs, and there would be no need to search for a broader basis for justification. The majority refuses to ask or answer this simple question based on articulable suspicion of marijuana possession even though (or is it because?) the answer would reduce the rest of its speculations to dictum. Certainly, this is not the path of judicial restraint.
*955The original panel did ask the question about reasonable suspicion of marijuana possession, (which was clearly raised as an issue by the parties) and answered it in the negative — opening the floodgates for the major revision of Fourth Amendment law represented by the majority opinion. After hearing the case reargued en banc, I think that the panel opinion may have been incorrect about this issue. Only three days before the traffic stop under scrutiny here, Officer Chiola had apprehended Childs with marijuana, and the officer was struck by the palpable nervousness of Childs during the second stop as contrasted with his sangfroid on the earlier occasion. The panel treated these circumstances as presenting a “record” or criminal history of drug activity by Childs, which is ordinarily not sufficient grounds for articulable suspicion. And, no doubt, Officer Chiola’s recollection of what happened three days before is a sort of “record.” The question is a close one, but the circumstances may have given Officer Chi-ola a green light to ask about marijuana. After all, the only intrusion based on this arguably reasonable suspicion was the marijuana question. See United States v. Feliciano, 45 F.3d 1070, 1074 (7th Cir.1995) (“[K]nowledge of ... recent relevant criminal conduct while of doubtful evidentiary value in view of the strictures against proving guilt by association or by a predisposition based on past criminal acts, is a permissible component of the articulable suspicion required for a T&rry stop.” (emphasis in original) (citations omitted)). In view of the very recent occurrence of the earlier stop, where marijuana was found, and the changed demeanor of the suspect, it would seem natural to the officer to ask the question and it may be arbitrary to deny him the authority to do so. Therefore, at least for purposes of this opinion, I will treat the question about marijuana as properly based on articulable suspicion aroused by the earlier stop. This would provide a perfectly adequate and more limited basis for affirming the district court than the course followed by the majority.
To find reasonable suspicion of marijuana possession here distinguishes these circumstances from questioning about bank robberies in the area or unsolved home invasions, as to which there would have been no articulable suspicion. There would be no basis for suspecting Childs of these crimes and they are clearly outside the scope of a detention for a cracked windshield, an unlatched seat belt, or marijuana possession. Simply on a commonsense basis, questions about bank robberies or home invasions would probably strike even a police officer as out of line in these circumstances. “Scope” is the key word here since both in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), and in numerous cases since that decision, the Supreme Court has prescribed “scope” as a limitation on investigations conducted during a temporary detention. The restriction based on “scope” has also been applied by the courts of appeals in innumerable temporary detention cases since Terry — most recently in the Tenth Circuit’s authoritative en banc decision in United States v. Holt, 264 F.3d 1215 (10th Cir.2001). The majority’s effort to belittle the conclusions of Holt as dictum, is, with all respect, a little like the pot calling the kettle black, for the majority’s reliance on the broadest ground for the present decision, although not really productive of dictum, is no more essential to the result here than were the Tenth Circuit’s comments in Holt.
Holt concludes that both the length and the scope of a traffic stop provide Fourth Amendment limitations on the detention. Id. at 1230. In reaching this conclusion, the majority in Holt comprehensively analyzed the Fourth Amendment, Supreme *956Court precedent and Tenth Circuit precedent, as well as cases from other circuits. Holt makes a clear and compelling case for its conclusion, and I entirely agree with its reasoning and result.
The Fourth Amendment, of course, protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. A temporary detention of an individual during the stop of an automobile by the police, even if only for a brief period and for a limited purpose, constitutes a “seizure” of a “person” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 809, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996). Thus, temporary detentions for traffic violations must not be “unreasonable” under the circumstances. Id. For a detention to be reasonable, it must be limited in duration and scope. This was made clear by the Court in Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 500, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983) (plurality), where the Court said
The Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures has always been interpreted to prevent a search that is not limited to the particularly described “place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized,” U.S. Const., Amend. IV, even if the search was made pursuant to a warrant and based upon probable cause. The Amendment’s protection is not diluted in those situations where it has been determined that legitimate law enforcement interests justify a warrantless search: the search must be limited in scope to that which is justified by the particular purposes served by the exception. ... Terry v. Ohio ... also embodies this principle: “The scope of the search must be strictly tied to and be justified by the circumstances which rendered its initiation permissible.”
Id. at 500, 103 S.Ct. 1319 (plurality) (internal quotations and citation omitted). That this discussion applies equally to seizures and to searches clearly follows since the Fourth Amendment applies with the same force to seizures as it does searches. See also United States v. Rivera, 906 F.2d 319, 322 (7th Cir.1990) (“Moreover, the constitution restricts the scope of the seizure to that which is necessary to fulfill the seizure’s purpose.”).
“[Vlirtually, all thoughtful, civilized persons not overly steeped to the point of confusion in the mysteries of ... Fourth Amendment jurisprudence,” Royer, 460 U.S. at 520, 103 S.Ct. 1319 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting), would agree that the scope of a search or seizure must be part of the reasonableness inquiry. For if a man were stopped for speeding in Utah, it would not be reasonable for a police officer to ask whether he were practicing polygamy. There would be nothing in the circumstances to suggest any basis for such an inquiry even if the duration of the stop was not lengthened. The question itself would be an invasion of privacy. This is a good illustration why the duration of a traffic stop cannot be the only dimension of reasonableness. The subject-matter (or scope) dimension provides limits that are just as binding as the time (or duration) dimension.
Drawing upon the common-sense notion that reasonableness includes both a scope and a duration dimension, this circuit had held that police officers may not ask questions unrelated to the purpose of a traffic stop, unless there is an independent source of reasonable suspicion. See, e.g., United States v. Finke, 85 F.3d 1275, 1280 (7th Cir.1996) (A police officer had sufficient reasonable and articulable suspicions of drug courier activity to justify a speedy, unintrusive criminal record inquiry after a traffic stop.); United States v. Rivera, 906 F.2d 319, 322 (7th Cir.1990) (Certain of the questions asked by a trooper of an individ*957ual during a traffic stop were casual banter or were justified by the trooper’s reasonable suspicion.). This circuit has not been alone in its interpretation of the Fourth Amendment. The Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits are wholly in agreement. See, e.g., Holt, 264 F.3d at 1230 (concluding that both the length and scope of a traffic stop are relevant factors in deciding whether the stop comports with the Fourth Amendment); United States v. Murillo, 255 F.3d 1169, 1174 (9th Cir.2001) (“During a traffic stop, a police officer is allowed to ask questions that are reasonably related in scope to the justification for his initiation of contact. In order to broaden the scope of questioning, he must articulate suspicious factors that are particularized and objective.” (internal citations omitted)); United States v. Ramos, 42 F.3d 1160, 1163 (8th Cir.1994) (holding that a police officer did not have reasonable suspicion to ask questions not reasonably related to the stop, but finding the subsequent consent nevertheless to be voluntary). Only the Fifth Circuit apparently has narrowed the scope requirement to coincide with the duration requirement. See United States v. Shabazz, 993 F.2d 431, 437 (5th Cir.1993).
The majority criticizes Ramos and Murillo for failing to address Florida v. Bostick, 501 U.S. 429, 111 S.Ct. 2382, 115 L.Ed.2d 389 (1991), and similar decisions by the Supreme Court. Opinion, at 951-52. In those decisions, the Supreme Court approved police questioning of citizens when no detention was involved. The majority quotes Bostick for the proposition that “mere police questioning is not a seizure.” Opinion, at 950. But that quotation was taken out of context to support the argument that questioning can never be a seizure. For in Bostick, a bus was making a regular stopover and the case merely held that police officers could question people on board the bus about drugs. In reaching this conclusion, the Supreme Court stated in dictum that “[sjince Terry, we have repeatedly held that mere police questioning does not constitute a seizure.” See 501 U.S. at 434, 111 S.Ct. 2382. The Court discussed Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983), Florida v. Rodriguez, 469 U.S. 1, 105 S.Ct. 308, 83 L.Ed.2d 165 (1984), and INS v. Delgado, 466 U.S. 210, 104 S.Ct. 1758, 80 L.Ed.2d 247 (1984), as cases supporting this proposition. Royer involved police questioning of undetained people on the street or in other public places. Rodriguez concerned police questioning of an individual in an airport concourse. Delgado involved questioning of workers at a factory. Significantly, the Court found the police encounters in these cases to be “the sort of consensual encounter[s] that implicate no Fourth Amendment interest.” Bostick, 501 U.S. at 434, 111 S.Ct. 2382 (internal quotations and citations omitted.). Neither Terry nor any of the cases relied upon by the Court in Bostick stands for the proposition that police questioning, when the person being questioned is being-detained (and the encounter is thus non-consensual), is not a seizure.
The majority also finds fault with the panel decision here as well as with Ramos for making the “logical error” of equating “X defeats the defendant’s constitutional claim” with “X is the only way to defeat the defendant’s constitutional claim.” Opinion, at 951. Thus, the majority argues that United States v. Cummins, 920 F.2d 498 (8th Cir.1990), merely held that the questions asked were authorized since they were related to the purpose of the stop, and Ramos extended Cummins to hold that questions could be asked only if they were related to the purpose of the stop. Similarly, Rivera held that the questions at issue were based on reasonable *958suspicion, and the panel here extended Rivera to hold that only questions that are based upon reasonable suspicion could be asked by an officer during a police stop.
But Ramos and the panel opinion are not as “illogical” as the majority suggests. First, both Ramos and the panel allowed questions to be asked that related to the purpose (or scope) of the stop or that were based upon reasonable suspicion arising independently. For example, if the officer making the traffic stop sees drugs in plain view or smells drugs, the officer can ask questions about drugs. Questions that are related to officer safety can also be asked. See Holt, 264 F.3d at 1222-23 (allowing officers to ask about firearms even if they had no reasonable suspicion of firearm possession). Second, the facts in Cum-mins and Rivera led to the limited holdings in those cases. In Cummins, the initial question was related to the purpose of the stop. 920 F.2d at 502. The driver’s inconsistent answer justified additional questioning. See id. In Rivera, the officer had reasonable suspicion, on which the questions were based. 906 F.2d at 322. There was no need in either case to reach the broader holding that questions could be asked only if related to the purpose of the stop or based upon articulable suspicion. Because the facts in Childs suggested that the question about drugs was not related to the purpose of the stop (which was for a cracked windshield) nor (as the panel initially concluded) justified by reasonable suspicion of drug possession, the panel had to reach a holding that was broader than the holding in Rivera. Finally, the majority commits its own logical error by, in effect, arguing that “scope” is merely a proxy for duration. At least the panel incorporated Rivera’s approach to analyzing what questions could be asked during a traffic stop, while the majority renders Rivera’s approach moot.
The majority further opines that the panel opinion conflicts with certain decisions in this circuit that ostensibly approve of questioning about subjects as to which there is no suspicion. See United States v. Williams, 209 F.3d 940 (7th Cir.2000); United States v. Baker, 78 F.3d 1241 (7th Cir.1996). However, in neither of those cases did this court address the issue of whether questioning outside the scope of a traffic stop is a Fourth Amendment violation. Further, even though the issue was not briefed, there appears to have been articulable suspicion to justify the questions. In Williams, the police officer asked the defendant if he had anything on him that he shouldn’t. 209 F.3d at 942. But the officer had been informed by a fellow officer that the passenger in the car had recently been the victim of a shooting and was known to carry weapons. Id. at 941. That information combined with the officer’s observations would probably have been sufficient to raise articulable suspicion of a weapons offense. Likewise, in Baker, the officer asked if there were any drugs or weapons in the car. 78 F.3d at 1244. This question was asked only after the officer received inconsistent and suspicious answers to permissible questions about where Baker was going that night. Id. at 1244. The suspicious and inconsistent answers together with the officer’s observations and knowledge about the area would likely support an articulable suspicion of drug activity.
The majority attempts unsuccessfully to deal with the eminently sensible observation in Holt that “a typical traffic stop resembles in character the investigative stop governed by Terry more closely than it does a custodial arrest.” 264 F.3d at 1230. Based on its belief that Officer Chi-ola had probable cause (as opposed to reasonable suspicion) to stop the car for a presumed cracked windshield or seat belt violation, the majority concludes that the *959restrictions of Terry no longer apply. (Of course as to marijuana possession, Officer Chiola had only, at best, reasonable suspicion.) One problem with the probable cause analysis is that Childs was not the driver, so it is highly dubious that he could be placed under custodial arrest for the condition of the windshield. Even with respect to the seat belt violation, although Officer Chiola might have constitutionally taken Childs to the station house for booking, he did not do so. What he did (and facts should be controlling here) in the language of Holt, “resemble[d] in character the investigative stop governed by Terry more closely than it [did] a custodial arrest.” What the majority seems to be saying is that, because Officer Chiola could have gone on to a custodial arrest, he may instead (and without subjecting Childs to custodial arrest) elect to inquire into crimes for which there is neither probable cause nor reasonable suspicion. Under the factual circumstances that actually exist here, the restrictions of Terry ought reasonably to apply even though in theory this might be changed by proceeding to a custodial arrest with its particular legal regime.
This conclusion is fortified by the fact that this circuit has applied the Terry standard to cases in which the officer had probable cause to arrest the defendant for a traffic violation. See, e.g., United States v. Brown, 188 F.3d 860, 864 (7th Cir.1999) (applying Terry where officer pulled vehicle over for following other cars too closely); Valance v. Wisel, 110 F.3d 1269, 1276 (7th Cir.1997) (applying Terry where officer pulled over vehicle for crossing center line twice); Finke, 85 F.3d at 1278-79 (applying Terry where officer pulled a vehicle over for speeding). Even the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in Shabazz, on which the majority relies, applied the Terry standard in reaching its conclusion that the duration of the stop is the only Fourth Amendment limitation on traffic stops. See 993 F.2d at 434-35.
The footnote in Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 469 n. 29, 104 S.Ct. 3138, 82 L.Ed.2d 317 (1984), besides being dictum, sheds little light on the present problem because the footnote appears in the context of a discussion whether Miranda warnings need to be administered to a detainee at a traffic stop. The Court concluded that Miranda warnings are not required because of the “nonthreatening” character of traffic stops. None of this suggests the possibility of interrogation on subjects other than the one for which the stop was made. In Berkemer, the defendant was stopped for suspicion of drunken driving and was asked questions about drinking alcohol and using marijuana (mentioned in response to earlier questions about intoxicants). In no way do these questions exceed the scope of the stop for driving while intoxicated. The appearance of the word “scope” in the footnote therefore has no reference to interrogations about crimes outside the purpose of the stop.
The majority’s reliance on Ohio v. Robinette, 519 U.S. 33, 117 S.Ct. 417, 136 L.Ed.2d 347 (1996), is also misplaced. In support of its elimination of the scope requirement from traffic stops, the majority says “[b]y rejecting the position of the state court in Robinette, the Supreme Court necessarily rejected the broader contention that unrelated questions may not be asked.” Opinion, at 954. This is not a logical, let alone a necessary, conclusion from Robinette. In Robinette, a police officer had stopped the defendant for speeding. 519 U.S. at 35, 117 S.Ct. 417. After issuing a verbal warning and returning Robinette’s license, the officer asked Robinette whether he was “carrying any illegal contraband” in his car. Id. at 35-36, 117 S.Ct. 417. Robinette answered *960no, but he consented to have his car searched. Id. Drugs were found, and Ro-binette was convicted for possession of a controlled substance. Id. The Supreme Court of Ohio overturned the conviction, and the United States Supreme Court reversed. Id. The Supreme Court of Ohio held that the police questioning was unconstitutional because it concerned matters unrelated to the purposes of the stop. However, in addition, the Supreme Court of Ohio established a bright-line rule for consensual interrogation under these circumstances. Id. It required the police officer to advise the driver that he was free to leave before such questions could be asked. Id. The United States Supreme Court reversed, holding that the police officer did not have to advise the driver of his freedom to leave in order for the encounter to become a consensual encounter. Id. at 421. However, both courts were proceeding on the assumption that the encounter was consensual once the traffic citation had been issued, but the Ohio court sought to formalize this transition by requiring the police officer to advise the driver that he was free to leave. By contrast, in the case before us, the encounter had not become consensual because the questions were asked during the processing of the traffic offense, not after the ticket had been issued. Robinette never addressed, let alone approved, questions asked during a routine traffic stop that do not concern the purpose of the stop or were not based upon reasonable suspicion. In Robinette, the stop had ended once the license was returned.
In attempting to equate questioning without detention with questioning in the course of detention, the majority conveniently ignores the fact that detention involves official coercion and therefore concerns quite a different relationship of the police officer to the person questioned. Anyone who has been pulled over for a traffic offense faces the police officer as one currently exercising authority over the motorist to keep him or her in place. This exercise of official coercion is the reason the Supreme Court has limited questioning to matters within the scope of the stop. The majority does not explain why exceeding the scope of the stop is somehow less burdensome to the detainee’s Fourth Amendment rights than exceeding a reasonable duration for the stop. To explore bank robberies or polygamy, as to which there is no reasonable suspicion, with Childs would be to abuse the rationale for the stop based on other matters and would be just as abusive as extending a ten-minute stop to an hour.
The majority comments blithely that the detainee can refuse to answer the questions posed by the police officer. How many times have you refused to answer questions asked by a police officer who has pulled, your car over for a traffic offense? On the other hand, in a conversation between passengers seated on an airplane, where neither is exercising authority over the other, there would be nothing unusual about changing the subject if an embarrassing question were asked. There is simply all the difference in the world in the nature of the relationship between a police officer detaining someone for questioning and a police officer striking up a conversation on the bus. If the questions strayed far afield, one situation would present an invasion of privacy and the other would not.
The majority has sought to equate physical constraint (as of passengers in a bus or plane) with legal constraint (as of a passenger in an automobile stopped for a windshield violation). But the Fourth Amendment places limits only on the exercise of official authority which restrains movement or invades privacy. Physical obstacles to movement or escape, on the *961other hand implicate no constitutional right. As I have pointed out, however, an airline passenger can deal more lightheartedly with a seatmate than can a motorist pulled over for speeding. In any event, I should think we would want to avoid providing any incentives to the police to lure suspicious characters onto airplanes where they can perform acts of terrorism as well as be free to answer questions.
Based on the assumption that Officer Chiola had grounds for articulable suspicion of a marijuana violation by Childs because of their earlier encounter and Childs’s changed demeanor, the conviction may be affirmed. Officer Chiola could not ask any question that came to mind even though unsupported by reasonable suspicion. This broader rationale is not only incorrect but is unnecessary to the decision.