State v. Lee

373 Or. 555
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedApril 24, 2025
DocketS069654A
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 373 Or. 555 (State v. Lee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Lee, 373 Or. 555 (Or. 2025).

Opinion

No. 17 April 24, 2025 555

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF OREGON

STATE OF OREGON, Respondent on Review, v. AARON CHRISTOPHER LEE, Petitioner on Review. (CC 18CR62116) (CA A171927) (SC S069654)

On respondent on review’s petition for reconsideration filed July 18, 2023; considered and under advisement on October 10, 2023.* Erik Blumenthal, Deputy Public Defender, Office of Public Defense Services, Salem, argued the cause and filed the briefs for petitioner on review. Also on the briefs was Ernest G. Lannet, Chief Defender, Criminal Appellate Section. Peenesh Shah, Assistant Attorney General, Salem, argued the cause and filed the brief for respondent on review. Also on the brief were Ellen Rosenblum, Attorney General, and Benjamin Gutman, Solicitor General. Before Flynn, Chief Justice, and Duncan, Garrett, DeHoog, Bushong and James, Justices, and Walters, Senior Judge, Justice pro tempore.** JAMES, J. The petition for reconsideration is allowed. The former opinion is modified and adhered to as modified. Garrett, J., dissented and filed an opinion, in which Duncan and Bushong, JJ., joined.

______________ * 371 Or 200, 532 P3d 894 (2023); on review from the Court of Appeals, 319 Or App 191, 509 P3d 689 (2022). ** Masih, J., did not participate in the consideration or decision of this case. 556 State v. Lee Cite as 373 Or 555 (2025) 557

JAMES, J. The state has petitioned for reconsideration of our decision in State v. Lee, 371 Or 200, 532 P3d 894 (2023). We allow the petition for reconsideration, modify our earlier opinion as described below, and, as modified, adhere to that opinion. I. OVERVIEW In Lee, this court considered a challenge to the law- fulness of an “anticipatory” warrant, which we defined to be a warrant “based upon an affidavit showing probable cause that at some future time (but not presently) certain evidence of crime will be located at a specified place.” Id. at 202 (cit- ing United States v. Grubbs, 547 US 90, 126 S Ct 1494, 164 L Ed 2d 195 (2006) (internal quotation marks omitted)). We declined to reach the constitutional question that the par- ties presented because we concluded that Oregon’s statutory warrant requirements prohibited such warrants. Id. We began by examining ORS 133.555(2), which requires that a judge issue a warrant only when “the basis of the record made before the judge” establishes that “there is probable cause to believe that the search will discover things specified in the application” and the warrant appli- cation satisfies the requirement in ORS 133.545(6) that the affidavit “particularly set[ ] forth the facts and circum- stances tending to show that the objects of the search are in the places, or in the possession of the individuals, to be searched.” (Emphasis added.) We subjected those statutes to our usual statutory analysis, applying text, context, and leg- islative history pursuant to State v. Gaines, 346 Or 160, 171- 72, 206 P3d 1042 (2009), and concluded that the statutory requirement that the affidavit establish that the evidence presently be in the location—rather than in that location at some point in the future—foreclosed anticipatory warrants. Lee, 371 Or at 218. Having reached that conclusion, however, we noted that “not all statutory violations may result in the exclusion of evidence.” Id. We noted that ORS 136.432 provides that, generally, a court may not exclude “relevant and otherwise admissible evidence in a criminal action on the grounds 558 State v. Lee

that it was obtained in violation of any statutory provision.” We then adopted the reasoning expressed by former Justice Landau in State v. Thompson-Seed, 162 Or App 483, 986 P2d 732 (1999): “In State v. Thompson-Seed, * * * former Justice (then Judge) Landau explored, in considerable depth, the history of ORS 136.432 and concluded that that statute ‘is construed only to constrain the courts from creating new rules of exclu- sion and not to repeal existing statutory rules of exclusion.’ Id. at 491. That reasoning is sound. ORS 136.432 itself provides that evidence must be ‘otherwise admissible,’ clearly implying the potential for statutory exclusion. ORS 136.432 does not prevent the legislature itself from provid- ing for evidentiary exclusion based on a statutory violation. Rather, the legislature is free to provide avenues for exclu- sion, either explicitly or implicitly, for some statutes, and not for others.” Lee, 371 Or at 218-19. Applying that reasoning, we observed that ORS 133.673 “provides that the statutory requirements for war- rants contained in ORS 133.545(6) are enforceable via a motion to suppress.” Id. at 219. Finally, we observed that suppression, via ORS 133.673, for a failure to adhere to the warrant requirements of ORS 133.545(6) was not new, but in adherence with our holding in State v. Russell, 293 Or 469, 474, 650 P2d 79 (1982), in which we said that “[m]otions to suppress evidence are provided for by statute. Statutory grounds for a suppression include noncompliance with ORS 133.545 and 133.555.” Lee, 371 Or at 219. The state petitioned for reconsideration, contending that it had not had the opportunity to address the potential applicability of ORS 136.432, and we allowed the parties to file briefing on that issue. Before discussing the state’s argu- ments for reconsideration, it is important to note the aspects of our decision with which the state does not quarrel. First, the state does not dispute our construction of ORS 133.545(6) as requiring evidence to be in—in the present tense—the location to be searched. Nor does the state dispute that, so understood, ORS 133.545(6) precludes anticipatory war- rants. Third, the state does not challenge our adoption of the reasoning of Thompson-Seed. Accordingly, the state does Cite as 373 Or 555 (2025) 559

not dispute that, although ORS 136.432 expresses a general intent that a statutory violation will not be the sole basis for suppressing evidence, it does not prevent the legislature from providing for suppression for a statutory violation in specified instances. Having clarified what is not at issue on reconsider- ation, we turn to what is. First, the state argues that it was improper for this court to resolve Lee on statutory grounds rather than the constitutional grounds asserted by the par- ties.

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Related

State v. Lee
568 P.3d 139 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2025)

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Bluebook (online)
373 Or. 555, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lee-or-2025.