People v. Caballes

CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedMay 18, 2006
Docket91547 Rel
StatusPublished

This text of People v. Caballes (People v. Caballes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Caballes, (Ill. 2006).

Opinion

Docket No. 91547.

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Appellee, v. ROY I. CABALLES, Appellant.

Opinion filed May 18, 2006.

JUSTICE GARMAN delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. Chief Justice Thomas and Justices Fitzgerald and Karmeier concurred in the judgment and opinion. Justice Freeman dissented, with opinion, joined by Justices McMorrow and Kilbride.

OPINION On January 24, 2005, the Supreme Court of the United States vacated this court=s judgment in People v. Caballes, 207 Ill. 2d 504 (2003) (Caballes I), and remanded the cause for Afurther proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.@ Illinois v. Caballes, 543 U.S. 405, 410, 160 L. Ed. 2d 842, 848, 125 S. Ct. 834, 838 (2005). Both the Supreme Court and this court in its now-vacated judgment considered only defendant=s fourth amendment claim. However, in his original brief to this court, defendant also relied on article I, section 6, of the Illinois Constitution of 1970. Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, '6. Therefore, we must now consider whether, even though the canine sniff of defendant=s car during a routine traffic stop did not implicate the fourth amendment, it nevertheless violated the guarantees of the state constitution. We have allowed defendant=s motion to permit additional briefing of the state constitutional issues. In addition, we have permitted the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA), with the Office of the Cook County Public Defender, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois (ACLU), with a number of other organizations, to file briefs amici curiae on behalf of the defendant. 155 Ill. 2d R. 345.

BACKGROUND The facts surrounding defendant=s arrest are described in detail in our earlier opinion. Caballes I, 207 Ill. 2d at 506-08. In brief, defendant was stopped on an interstate highway by an Illinois state trooper for the offense of speeding. The trooper radioed the police dispatcher to report that he was making a stop. Before he began to write the ticket, he again radioed the police dispatcher to determine whether defendant=s license was valid and to check for outstanding warrants. When the trooper first radioed the police dispatcher to report the stop, a second trooper heard the transmission and immediately responded to the scene. The second trooper, a member of the Illinois State Police Drug Interdiction Team, was accompanied by a dog trained to detect narcotics. He and the dog arrived and walked around defendant=s car while the first trooper was in the process of writing a warning ticket. The dog

-2- alerted at the trunk. A search of the trunk revealed marijuana and defendant was placed under arrest. Approximately 10 minutes elapsed between the stop and the arrest. The trial court denied defendant=s motion to suppress evidence and quash arrest. After a bench trial, defendant was convicted of cannabis trafficking (720 ILCS 550/5.1(a) (West 1998)), sentenced to a term of 12 years in prison, and ordered to pay a street-value fine of $256,136. The appellate court affirmed, holding that the police are not required to have reasonable suspicion before conducting a canine sniff and that although the license and warrant check improperly extended the duration of the stop in this case, the resulting delay was de minimis. People v. Caballes, No. 3B99B0932 (2001) (unpublished under Supreme Court Rule 23). This court reversed, with three justices dissenting. Relying on People v. Cox, 202 Ill. 2d 462, 470-71 (2002), this court held that when a canine sniff is Aperformed without > Aspecific and articulable facts@ = to support its use,@ it unjustifiably enlarges Athe scope of a routine traffic stop into a drug investigation.@ Caballes I, 207 Ill. 2d at 510. Without addressing the appellate court=s conclusion that duration of the stop was not unjustifiably prolonged, this court concluded that the evidence should have been suppressed. The dissenting justices, relying on City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, 531 U.S. 32, 148 L. Ed. 2d 333, 121 S. Ct. 447 (2000), would have affirmed on the basis that a canine sniff is not a search. Caballes I, 207 Ill. 2d at 512 (Thomas, J., dissenting, joined by Fitzgerald and Garman, JJ.). Although this court did not expressly state that it was conducting its analysis solely under the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution, it did state that it was applying the principles of Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889, 88 S. Ct. 1868 (1968), as it had previously done in other cases involving routine traffic stops. Caballes I, 207 Ill. 2d at 508. The majority implicitly and the dissent explicitly (Caballes I, 207 Ill. 2d at 514 (Thomas, J., dissenting, joined by Fitzgerald and Garman, JJ.)), relied on fourth amendment jurisprudence. In Caballes I, this court gave no consideration to defendant=s argument that the evidence against him should have been

-3- suppressed under the provisions of the Illinois Constitution of 1970 (Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, '6). The Supreme Court of the United States granted the State=s petition for a writ of certiorari. Proceeding from the premise that the Aduration of the stop in this case was entirely justified by the traffic offense and the ordinary inquiries incident to such a stop@ (Caballes, 543 U.S. at 408, 160 L. Ed. 2d at 846-47, 125 S. Ct. at 837), the Court framed the issue as whether a dog sniff, otherwise conducted in a reasonable manner, changes the character of a traffic stop that is lawful at its inception. Caballes, 543 U.S. at 408, 160 L. Ed. 2d at 847, 125 S. Ct. at 837. The Court answered this question in the negative. Official conduct does not constitute a search for fourth amendment purposes unless it compromises a legitimate interest in privacy. Because an individual=s interest in possessing contraband cannot be deemed legitimate, official conduct that merely reveals the possession of contraband does not compromise a legitimate privacy interest. Caballes, 543 U.S. at 408, 160 L. Ed. 2d at 847, 125 S. Ct. at 837. A canine sniff by a dog trained to detect the presence of narcotics discloses only the presence or absence of contraband and, therefore, Adoes not implicate legitimate privacy interests.@ Caballes, 543 U.S. at 409, 160 L. Ed. 2d at 847, 125 S. Ct. at 838. The Court noted that this analysis is consistent with its earlier decision that the use of thermal-imaging equipment to detect the growing of marijuana plants inside a home is an unlawful search. Unlike the canine sniff, which will not reveal noncontraband items of a private nature, thermal imaging may reveal Aintimate details@ within a home, such as conduct in the bedroom or bathroom. Caballes, 543 U.S. at 409-10, 160 L. Ed. 2d at 848, 125 S. Ct. at 838, citing Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27, 150 L. Ed. 2d 94, 121 S. Ct. 2038 (2001).

ISSUES Defendant makes three separate claims on remand. First, he argues that this court should not continue to interpret and apply the search and seizure provision of article I, section 6, of

-4- the Illinois Constitution of 1970 in lockstep with the United States Supreme Court=s interpretation and application of the search and seizure clause of the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution. Second, defendant asserts that unless the police have probable cause or reasonable suspicion, the use of a canine sniff during a routine traffic stop violates the privacy clause of article I, section 6, of the Illinois Constitution of 1970.

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People v. Caballes, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-caballes-ill-2006.