Schroeder v. United States

7 F.2d 60, 1925 U.S. App. LEXIS 3486
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedMay 4, 1925
Docket318
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 7 F.2d 60 (Schroeder v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Schroeder v. United States, 7 F.2d 60, 1925 U.S. App. LEXIS 3486 (2d Cir. 1925).

Opinion

ROGERS, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). It appears that, before the jury was impaneled or sworn, his counsel moved, upon an agreed statement of facts, that the information be dismissed. In making this motion, counsel relied on the claim that the evidence relied on by the government was obtained in violation of the constitutional rights of the defendant as secured to Mm under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution.

The Fourth Amendment declares that “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated. * *' ‘ ”

And the Fifth Amendment declares that “no person * * ’ shall be compelled in any criminal case to bo a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

The agreed statement of facts, upon which the motion was made, was as follows: “The particular situation presented by the evidence is, briefly, that they had no search warrant. A police officer, in searching for a violation of the liquor law, went into an automobile which bore no outward signs of containing liquor, and went into or opened a closed package, without the owner’s consent, the package having no mark or suggestion on it that it contained any liquor, and opened the package, and there found a certain quantity of liquor. The question of law is as to whether or not that is a violation of the constitutional rights of the defendant, who bad possession of the package at that time.” The court denied the motion to dismiss.

The government’s witnesses were two police officers of the city of New York and the government’s examining chemist.

The first witness, a sergeant of police in the city of New York, testified that he was a confidential investigator of the police department; that on the afternoon of August 27, 1924, he saw the defendant carry a package from a building to an automobile standing in the street in front of that building. The defendant placed the package in the automobile. He then questioned the defendant, who stated .that the package had been given to Mm by a woman. The witness took the package from the automobile, had it opened, and found that it contained six bottles of gin. He made no arrest at that time. On the following day, he took these bottles to the United States chemist in the Federal *62 Building, and reported the circumstances to the assistant United States attorney, whereupon an application for a warrant was made; the witness swearing to a complaint at that time. Under that warrant, the defendant was arrested. The witness accompanied the United States marshal when the warrant of arrest was served.

The second witness, a member of the police force of the city of New York, who was present and heard and saw what was said and done concerning what took place on August 27th, substantiated the testimony of the first witness.

The third witness, the government’s chemist, stated that he had examined the liquor, and found that it was gin, containing a forbidden alcoholic content. The liquor was then offered in evidence, and its introduction was objected to on behalf of defendant, on the ground that it was procured in violation of defendant’s constitutional rights. The objection was overruled.

The government then rested, and a motion on behalf of the defendant was made for a dismissal, on the same ground as the preliminary motion, and on the further ground that there was no evidence that the defendant knowingly possessed the contents of the package which was the substance of the information. This also was overruled, and an exception duly noted.

The defendant introduced some testimony, which did not differ in essential particulars from that introduced by the government. At the. close of the entire case, the defendant again moved for a dismissal of the information, and the motion was again denied.

The motion to dismiss the indictment, on the ground that the seizure of the liquor without a search warrant was contrary to law and violated the constitutional rights of the defendant, was, in our opinion, properly denied. The persons who made the seizure were not federal officers, and it does not appear that in what they did they aeted upon the instigation of any federal officials. They were police officers of the city of New York.

The Fourth Amendment does not protect citizens against unreasonable searches by the state government and its agencies. The Supreme Court has settled the law upon that-question. In Twining v. New Jersey, 211 U. S. 78, 92, 29 S. Ct. 14, 16 (53 L. Ed. 97) it was said that “by the unvarying decisions of this court the first ten amendments * * * are restrictive only of national action.”

In Weeks v. United States, 232 U. S. 383, 398, 34 S. Ct. 341, 346 (58 L. Ed. 652, L. R. A. 1915B, 834, Ann. Cas. 1915 C. 1177), the court said: “As to papers and property seized by the policemen, it does not appear that they aeted under any claim of federal authority such as would make the amendment applicable to such unauthorized seizures. The record shows that what they did by way of arrest and search and seizure was done before the finding of the indictment of the federal court, under what supposed right or authority does not appear. What remedies the defendant may have against them we need not inquire, as the Fourth Amendment is not directed to individual misconduct of such officials. Its limitations reach the federal government and its agencies. Boyd Case, 116 U. S. 616 [6 S. Ct. 524, 29 L. Ed. 746]. And see Twining v. New Jersey, 211 U. S. 78 [29 S. Ct. 14, 53 L. Ed. 97].”

In Burdeau v. McDowell, 256 U. S. 465, 41 S. Ct. 574, 65 L. Ed. 1048, 13 A. L. R. 1159, it appeared that persons without a search warrant had entered a private office, blown open the safes, and abstracted therefrom certain private papers. They also forced open a desk in the room, and removed all the papers found therein. Later these papers found their way into the Department of Justice of the United -States. The question was whether the government could retain papers so obtained and use them before a grand jury, and, if an indictment was found, use them at the trial against the party from whose possession the papers were in this manner obtained. It appeared that no federal official had anything to do with the seizure of the papers. The court said:

“The Fourth Amendment gives protection against unlawful searches and seizures, and, as shown in the previous eases, its protection applies .to governmental action. Its origin and history clearly show that it was intended as a restraint upon the activities of sovereign authority, and was not intended to be a limitation upon other than governmental agencies; as against such, authority it was the purpose of the Fourth Amendment to secure the citizen in the right of unmolested occupation of his dwelling and the possession of his property, subject to the right of seizure by process duly issued.

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Bluebook (online)
7 F.2d 60, 1925 U.S. App. LEXIS 3486, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schroeder-v-united-states-ca2-1925.