United States v. George MacArthur Posey, III

864 F.2d 1487, 1989 U.S. App. LEXIS 96, 1989 WL 418
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 9, 1989
Docket87-5297
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 864 F.2d 1487 (United States v. George MacArthur Posey, III) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. George MacArthur Posey, III, 864 F.2d 1487, 1989 U.S. App. LEXIS 96, 1989 WL 418 (9th Cir. 1989).

Opinion

WILLIAM A. NORRIS, Circuit Judge:

Appellant George Arthur Posey appeals his convictions for violating and conspiring to violate the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act and the Arms Export Control Act. We affirm.

I

BACKGROUND

Appellant is in the business of selling technical data relating to military and commercial aircraft to contractors located both in the United States and abroad. The information he sells is unclassified, and he generally obtains it from the government through requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

In 1985, the FBI became aware that appellant was arranging sales of technical data to purchasers in South Africa. The government obtained a wiretap order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court upon a finding that appellant was an “agent of a foreign power” pursuant to 50 U.S.C. § 1801(b)(2)(A). The wiretap con *1490 firmed that appellant was arranging to ship military technology manuals to South Africa. In early 1987, appellant was arrested after an associate was caught with the manuals at the airport, boarding a flight to Argentina en route to South Africa.

Appellant was charged with one count of Conspiracy to Violate the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), 18 U.S.C. § 371 (1982) and 22 U.S.C. § 2778 (Supp. IV 1986), and the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, 22 U.S.C. § 5067 (Supp. IV 1986); one count of violating the AECA by shipping to South Africa technical manuals relating to generators of the G-130 aircraft; and one count of violating the AECA by shipping to Argentina a design handbook relating to the C-130. Shortly before trial, an additional count was brought charging appellant with violating the CAAA by sending the technical manuals to South Africa.

During the trial, the first AECA count charging him with violating the AECA by shipping the technical manuals to South Africa was dismissed. Appellant was convicted of the conspiracy count and the remaining two substantive counts and was sentenced to ten years in prison, with all but the first four months of the sentence suspended. He now appeals on a variety of grounds.

II

SURVEILLANCE PURSUANT TO THE FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT

Appellant argues that the government’s electronic surveillance of him, carried out pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), 50 U.S.C. §§ 1801-1811 (1982), violated the Fourth Amendment. We disagree.

The FISA authorizes electronic surveillance of foreign powers and their agents for foreign intelligence purposes, specifying a number of standards and procedures for the issuance of surveillance warrants. With certain exceptions not relevant here, FISA requires judicial approval before the government may engage in such surveillance. Under the statute, a federal officer with the approval of the Attorney General may apply to a special FISA court for an order authorizing surveillance. 50 U.S.C. § 1804. The application must state facts justifying the applicant’s belief that the target of the surveillance is “an agent of a foreign power,” 50 U.S.C. § 1804(a)(4)(A), which is defined as a person who “knowingly engages in clandestine intelligence gathering activities for or on behalf of a foreign power, which activities involve or may involve a violation of the criminal statutes of the United States.” 50 U.S.C. § 1801(b)(2)(A).

Appellant contends that these provisions of the FISA violate the Fourth Amendment’s requirement that the government conduct searches only upon the issuance of a warrant supported by probable cause. 1 Appellant argues that the standards enunciated in the FISA are so broad and vague that they fail to provide a “discernible probable cause standard” for the issuance of warrants. He urges that the phrases “clandestine intelligence gathering activities” and “activities involve or may involve a violation of the criminal statutes” are so vague and overbroad as to authorize searches falling far below the Fourth Amendment’s probable cause requirement. 2 *1491 Moreover, he argues, the FISA’s departure from the probable cause standard is not justified by the so-called “national security exception to the Fourth Amendment” which has previously authorized such departures. 3

As an initial matter, we think it clear that appellant may not make a facial challenge to the FISA without arguing that the particular surveillance against him violated the Fourth Amendment. Much of appellant’s argument is a combined “vagueness” and “overbreadth” argument analogous to those found in the First Amendment context, in which he urges that some possible applications of the FISA might violate the Fourth Amendment. Even if he is correct that the FISA’s language might be applied in ways that violate the Fourth Amendment, he must show that the particular search in his case violated the Fourth Amendment. Appellant cannot invalidate his own conviction on the argument that others’ rights are threatened by FISA.

Appellant has not persuaded us that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the surveillance in this case. Our independent review of the materials submitted by the government in support of its warrant application persuades us that the government in fact had satisfied the standard of probable cause. The record shows that the government demonstrated an adequate foundation to establish probable cause to believe that appellant was violating the export control laws. It is thus unnecessary for us to decide whether the standards set forth in the FISA satisfy the requirements of the Fourth Amendment. Whether or not the FISA’s standards do, as appellant urges, fall short of the Fourth Amendment because they do not force the government to make the constitutionally requisite showing of probable cause, the government did in fact make such a showing in this case.

III

EXCLUSION OF EVIDENCE

Appellant contends that the district court erred in excluding certain favorable evidence from the trial. He argues that the district court erred first in excluding his “China brochure” exhibit, which involves an exchange of letters between appellant and a Defense Department official in which the official granted appellant permission to export certain documents, and second in excluding the testimony of two former Defense Department officials who testified that appellant did not need a license to export the materials he was charged with exporting.

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Bluebook (online)
864 F.2d 1487, 1989 U.S. App. LEXIS 96, 1989 WL 418, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-george-macarthur-posey-iii-ca9-1989.