Court Opinion

ID: 9495476
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:03:44.674965+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:02.522929
License: Public Domain

BOGGS, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in all of the court’s opinion, except for Part II.A.2.a (pp. 568-73), concerning the Fourth Amendment validity of the October 9, 1999 search. Whether the October 9 search was a reasonable continuation of the October 8 search is a close and difficult question. The inevitable discovery rule provides a wholly sufficient ground on which to hold the evidence seized in the search admissible. See Op., Part II.A.2.b (pp. 573-76).
Since Keszthelyi was incarcerated during the entire period of the search, I see little difference in the privacy violation between a, for example, two-hour search on October 8, and a one-hour search on October 8 and another on October 9. The search on October 9 does not appear to have been either gratuitous, or designed to inflict some additional privacy violation. In addition, there seems to be a contradiction between the easy conclusion on page 22 that “little objective basis existed for believing that evidence escaped the first search” and the correct statement on page 25 that “the amount of cash found during the initial search of the defendant’s residence was less than expected” (as well as Agent Isom’s informed (and ultimately correct) conclusion that cocaine should have been found at the house). By making this firm a holding in a very close case, we merely insure that, in this circuit, well-informed police officers will make sure that a search continues for whatever length of time is necessary to call in additional resources and information, communicate with superiors, etc., even if it means prolonging an initial search well beyond what would have occurred otherwise.
I would have abstained from deciding the validity of the October 9 search, given the clear applicability of the inevitable discovery rule. We should not decide constitutional questions when their resolution is unnecessary to determine the relevant legal question: in this case, the admissibility of the evidence seized in the October 9 search. Alexander v. Louisiana, 405 U.S. 625, 633-34, 92 S.Ct. 1221, 31 L.Ed.2d 536 (1972) (discussing the tradition of “avoiding decision of constitutional issues unnecessary to the decision of the case before us”).