2010 WI 84
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Supreme Court of |
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Case No.: |
2007AP1894-CR |
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Complete Title: |
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State of ��������� Plaintiff-Respondent, ���� v. David A. Dearborn, ��������� Defendant-Appellant-Petitioner. |
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REVIEW OF A DECISION OF THE COURT OF APPEALS 2008 WI App 131 Reported at: 313 (Ct. App. 2008-Published) |
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Opinion Filed: |
July 15, 2010� |
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Submitted on Briefs: |
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Oral Argument: |
April 13, 2010� |
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Source of Appeal: |
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Court: |
Circuit� |
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County: |
Grant� |
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Judge: |
George S. Curry� |
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Justices: |
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Concurred: |
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Dissented: |
ABRAHAMSON, C.J., dissents (opinion filed). BRADLEY, J., joins dissent.� |
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Not Participating: |
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Attorneys: |
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For the defendant-appellant-petitioner there were briefs and oral argument by Eileen A. Hirsch, assistant state public defender.
For the plaintiff-appellant the cause was argued by Michael J. Losse, assistant attorney general, with whom on the brief was J.B. Van Hollen, attorney general.
2010
WI 84
notice
This opinion is subject to further editing and modification.� The final version will appear in the bound volume of the official reports.�
REVIEW of a decision of the Court of Appeals.� Affirmed.
�1�� MICHAEL J. GABLEMAN, J. This is a review of a
published decision of the court of appeals[1]
affirming the circuit court's judgment of conviction against David A. Dearborn.[2]
�
�2�� Dearborn maintains, and the State concedes, that in the wake of the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. ___, 129 S. Ct. 1710 (2009), the search of Dearborn's truck violated his constitutional right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures.� The main question in this case is whether the exclusionary rule should be applied to remedy the constitutional violation, or alternatively, whether the good faith exception should preclude application of the exclusionary rule and the evidence's consequent suppression.[3]
�3�� Prior to the United States Supreme Court's decision in Gant,
this court made clear in State v. Fry, 131 Wis. 2d 153,
388 N.W.2d 565
(1986), and its progeny that the type of search conducted of Dearborn's truck
following his arrest was lawful.�
However, we now accept Gant's interpretation of the United States
Constitution and adopt its holding as the proper interpretation of the
Wisconsin Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches and
seizures.� Thus, the search of
�4�� However, we decline to apply the remedy of exclusion for the
constitutional violation.� We hold that
the good faith exception precludes application of the exclusionary rule where
officers conduct a search in objectively reasonable reliance upon clear and
settled
I. BACKGROUND
�5 �On April 9, 2006, State Department of Natural
Resources conservation warden Martin Stone was on his regular patrol, checking
fishing license compliance in various locations in
�6� The warden then pursued
�7�
�8� Once backup arrived,
�9� On April 11, 2006, a criminal complaint was
filed in the Grant County Circuit Court, George S. Curry, Judge.�
�10�
�11� The court of appeals rejected
�12� In his petition for review before this court,
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
�13 The application of
constitutional principles to a particular case is a question of constitutional
fact.� State v. Pallone, 2000 WI
77, �26, 236
III. DISCUSSION
�14� The right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures
is protected by both the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and
Article 1, Section 11 of the Wisconsin Constitution.[6]
�State v. Sykes,
2005 WI 48, �13, 279
�15� When there has been an unlawful search, a common judicial remedy
for the constitutional error is exclusion.�
State v. Eason, 2001 WI 98, ��39-45, 245
�16� The question before us is whether the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule should apply when clear and settled precedent, reasonably relied upon by law enforcement, is subsequently overruled.
�17� We begin in Part A by discussing the implications of the United
States Supreme Court's decision in Gant.�
We conclude that the search of
�18� In Part B, we move to the proper remedy for this constitutional
violation, focusing on the exclusionary rule and its tension with the
retroactivity rule.� We ultimately
decline to enforce the remedy of exclusion for the unlawful search of
A.
Wisconsin Law and
�19� The parties agree that under Arizona v. Gant, the search
here violated
�20� In Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752 (1969), the United States Supreme Court established the basic analysis underlying a search incident to arrest.� It explained:
When an arrest is made, it is reasonable for the arresting officer to search the person arrested in order to remove any weapons that the latter might seek to use in order to resist arrest or effect his escape. �Otherwise, the officer's safety might well be endangered, and the arrest itself frustrated. �In addition, it is entirely reasonable for the arresting officer to search for and seize any evidence on the arrestee's person in order to prevent its concealment or destruction. �And the area into which an arrestee might reach in order to grab a weapon or evidentiary items must, of course, be governed by a like rule. �A gun on a table or in a drawer in front of one who is arrested can be as dangerous to the arresting officer as one concealed in the clothing of the person arrested.� There is ample justification, therefore, for a search of the arrestee's person and the area "within his immediate control"��construing that phrase to mean the area from within which he might gain possession of a weapon or destructible evidence.
�21� In 1981, the United States Supreme Court examined whether the
passenger compartment of an automobile was subject to a search when the
occupant is placed under lawful arrest.�
�22� Justice Brennan wrote a dissent in Belton that chastised the
court for choosing a bright-line rule that failed to reflect the underlying
policy justifications in Chimel.�
�23� Following the Supreme Court's decision in Belton, state and
federal courts around the country took the general, "bright-line"
principle announced in Belton to mean that actual accessibility was no
longer needed; rather, passenger compartments were searchable as long as the
arrestee was at the scene.� See Gant,
129 S. Ct. at 1718 ("[O]ur opinion [in Belton] has been widely
understood to allow a vehicle search incident to the arrest of a recent
occupant even if there is no possibility the arrestee could gain access to the
vehicle at the time of the search.").[8]�
�24� In State v. Fry, this court addressed the question of
"whether the search of the locked glove compartment of the defendant's
automobile after his arrest . . . was justified as a
search incident to an arrest."� 131
�25� After Fry, the law in Wisconsin was clear: following a
lawful arrest, police may search the contents of an automobile while the
defendant is at the scene without running afoul of Wis. Stat. � 986.11, Article 1,
Section 11 of the Wisconsin Constitution, or the Fourth Amendment to the United
States Constitution, whether or not the area searched was actually accessible
to the arrestee.� Subsequent
�26� In
Arizona v. Gant, 129
�27� Gant,
then, is a clear break from Fry and its progeny.� Consistent with our prior practice of keeping
�28� In
this case,
�29� However,
after Gant, as both parties recognize, we now know that the search of
B. The Good Faith Exception to the Exclusionary Rule
�30�
�31� The first principle is the retroactivity rule, which states that
newly declared constitutional rules must apply "to all similar cases
pending on direct review."� Griffith
v. Kentucky, 479 U.S. 314, 322-23 (1987); see also United States
v. Johnson, 457 U.S. 537, 562 (1982) (holding that a decision of the
Supreme Court "construing the Fourth Amendment is to be applied
retroactively to all convictions that were not yet final at the time the
decision was rendered").� This rule
accords with "basic norms of constitutional adjudication" and
contains "no exception for cases in which the new rule constitutes a
'clear break' with the past."� Griffith,
479
�32� Applying the retroactivity rule here means that even though the
search the officers conducted in this case was done in accordance with the law
as declared at the time of the search, we are still required to hold that the
search of
�33� The second competing principle at work here is the application of
the proper remedy for the constitutional violation��specifically, the exclusionary rule and the good faith
exception to the exclusionary rule.�
Broadly defined, the exclusionary rule is not applied when the officers
conducting an illegal search "acted in the objectively reasonable belief
that their conduct did not violate the Fourth Amendment."�
�34� This court is not the first to attempt a reconciliation of these two principles.� Numerous cases have been filed around the country in the wake of Gant raising precisely this same question.� The results have been mixed.� Some courts have determined that the remedy of exclusion should be applied in all cases where the retroactivity rule applies,[11] while other courts agree with our conclusion that the exclusionary rule should not apply where the officers relied in good faith on clear and settled law that was only subsequently changed.[12]
�35� We begin first with the exclusionary rule.� The exclusionary rule is a judicially created
remedy, not a right, and its application is restricted to cases where its
remedial objectives will best be served.�
Herring v.
�36� In Herring, decided just last year, the United States
Supreme Court reaffirmed Leon's holding that the exclusionary rule
should not apply when the police act in good faith, or in "objectively
reasonable reliance" on a subsequently invalidated search warrant.�
To trigger the exclusionary rule, police conduct must be sufficiently deliberate that exclusion can meaningfully deter it, and sufficiently culpable that such deterrence is worth the price paid by the justice system.� As laid out in our cases, the exclusionary rule serves to deter deliberate, reckless, or grossly negligent conduct, or in some circumstances recurring or systemic negligence.
�37� This court adopted the good faith exception to the exclusionary
rule in State v. Ward, 2000 WI 3, 231 Wis. 2d 723,
604 N.W.2d 517
(applying the exception to objectively reasonable reliance on settled law
subsequently overruled), and affirmed the principles of Leon in Eason,
245 Wis. 2d 206 (applying the
exception to objectively reasonable reliance on a warrant subsequently
invalidated).� Citing
�38� In sum, the exclusionary rule should be applied as a remedy to deter police misconduct and most appropriately when the deterrent benefits outweigh the substantial costs to the truth-seeking and law enforcement objectives of the criminal justice system.
�39� The exclusionary rule's tension with the retroactivity rule that lies at the heart of this case has already been addressed by both the United States Supreme Court and this court.
�40� In Illinois v. Krull, 480 U.S. 340 (1987), the Illinois
Supreme Court had ruled that a statute authorizing warrantless administrative
searches violated the Fourth Amendment.�
�41� The United States Supreme Court began its analysis by pointing to
the "prime purpose" of the exclusionary rule: deterrence of unlawful
police conduct.�
�42� Krull was a close case, with four members of the
�43� Ten years ago, the Wisconsin Supreme Court relied on Krull
for nearly the same proposition at issue in this case.� In Ward, 231 Wis. 2d 723, this court allowed
the admission of evidence obtained by officers acting in good faith reliance on
clear case law that was subsequently changed by the United States Supreme Court.�
�44� We can find no principled way to distinguish Krull or Ward from this case.[18]� Both this court and the United States Supreme Court have determined that the retroactivity rule does not bar application of the good faith exception in situations where police act in objectively reasonable reliance on settled (albeit subsequently overruled) law.� As we have already explained, the officers were following the clear and settled precedent of this court; this is exactly what officers should do.� Application of the exclusionary rule would have absolutely no deterrent effect on officer misconduct, while at the same time coming with the cost of allowing evidence of wrongdoing to be excluded.� In short, under Krull and Ward, it is clear that applying the exclusionary rule would be an inappropriate remedy for the constitutional violations here.
�45� We are not unmindful of the impact of the retroactivity
doctrine.� As the dissents in Krull
and Ward recognized, the real cost to not applying the exclusionary rule
when the law has been changed is that litigants may have less incentive to
challenge potentially unconstitutional searches.� See Krull, 480
�46� First, under our holding today, the exclusionary rule is
inappropriate only when the officer reasonably relies on clear and settled
precedent.� Our holding does not affect
the vast majority of cases where neither this court nor the United States
Supreme Court have spoken with specificity in a particular fact situation.� The only litigants who will be
disincentivized are the relatively small number of defendants who choose to challenge
searches that have already clearly and unequivocally been held lawful.� The vast majority of cases, particularly in
the fact-intensive Fourth Amendment context, will not fall into this category.� Moreover, we suspect that litigants are
already hesitant to challenge well-settled precedent; such challenges are
usually time-consuming and not worth the effort.� Additionally, litigants will often feel like
the facts of their case are slightly different and not squarely under the
authority of settled case law.� Even
�47� Second, criminal defendants will still want to do whatever they can to increase their chances for success.� It seems unlikely that convicted defendants will give up a fight to secure their freedom merely because the possibility of a material change in their conviction is low, or maybe after this case, somewhat lower.
�48� Finally, criminal defendants are represented by a dedicated group of public defenders and private attorneys who genuinely care about the development of the law.� Time and time again we have seen criminal defense attorneys take cases to this court, often without pay, in order to effect a particular change in the law.� We doubt that our holding in this case will change this practice.
�49� In sum, we are persuaded that the benefits of applying the exclusionary rule in this case are exceedingly low.� The deterrent effect on officer misconduct, which is the most important factor in our analysis, would be nonexistent.� For this reason, we conclude that the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule should preclude the suppression of the illegally obtained evidence in this case because the officers reasonably relied on clear and settled Wisconsin Supreme Court precedent in carrying out the search.
IV. CONCLUSION
�50� Prior to the United States Supreme Court's decision in Gant,
this court made clear in State v. Fry and its progeny that the type of
search conducted of
�51� However, we decline to apply the remedy of exclusion for the
constitutional violation.� We hold that
the good faith exception precludes application of the exclusionary rule where
officers conduct a search in objectively reasonable reliance upon clear and settled
By the Court.�The decision of the court of appeals is affirmed.
�52� SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, C.J. (dissenting).� I agree that under Arizona v. Gant,
129
�53� This case presents a real tension in the law and requires looking closely at the reasoning behind the two competing doctrines, the "retroactivity rule" of criminal procedure and the doctrine of "good faith" reliance under the Fourth Amendment.[19]� I do not pretend the resolution of the tension is easy, but in my view, the majority has looked carefully at only one side of the dilemma and in so doing has reached the wrong result.
�54� The majority disobeys controlling precedent, leaves an acknowledged constitutional violation unremedied, allows the law to provide different results for similarly situated defendants, and establishes a serious imbalance in how future Fourth Amendment issues will be brought to the courts and resolved.� Given the slight weight afforded these consequences by the majority, it is no wonder the majority fails to weigh the costs to judicial integrity and the integrity of judicial process, values which our court has protected through the exclusionary rule for over 80 years.
�55� Because I weigh these negative consequences more heavily than the majority has done, and because I decline to view judicial integrity as a dead letter, I dissent.�
�56� My discussion proceeds in four steps:
�57� First, the majority effectively disregards the controlling rule of retroactivity under Griffith v. Kentucky, 479 U.S. 314 (1987), leaving unremedied a violation of a defendant's constitutional rights and establishing a system of inequitable adjudication for criminal defendants in the position of the defendant here.�
�58� Second, I address the continuing value of judicial integrity and its importance in deciding the present case.� The majority does not assess the weight of judicial integrity in resolving the present case.�
�59� Third, I address the imbalance which I (and others) anticipate the majority's decision will create in how future cases determining Fourth Amendment boundaries will be raised and resolved.� The majority acknowledges but understates these consequences, which will likely reach well beyond the particular set of cases to be decided under Arizona v. Gant.�
�60� Fourth, I distinguish the cases which the majority asserts cannot be distinguished and which the majority seems to argue control the outcome here.�
�61� Make no mistake.� The majority's result is not dictated by precedent but runs against it.� The court has to make a choice in the present case: to permit or to suppress unconstitutionally obtained evidence in court.� The majority acknowledges that its decision in this case comes down to weighing the costs and benefits.� See majority op., ��38, 44.� In my view, the majority has bypassed key precedent and miscalculated the costs and benefits that drive its decision.
I
�62� The majority's result admits a constitutional violation but declines to provide a remedy.� In so doing, it tolerates a situation in this and future cases in which one defendant receives protection for a constitutional right while other defendants, by virtue of luck or timing, are denied the same protection for the same right.�
�63� The majority asserts that "the real cost" of admitting the unlawfully gained evidence in this case and others like it is "that litigants may have less incentive to challenge potentially unconstitutional searches."� Majority op., �45.� In other words, from the majority's point of view, the principal if not the only problem with admitting the evidence here is that it will come at some cost to the process of future law development.� I disagree and further discuss this issue in part III below.� However, before moving to that rather lawyerly discussion, I note that there are at least two more obvious and more direct "costs" that the majority has not tallied among the detriments of its decision.
�64� First, the majority concludes that the defendant's Fourth Amendment rights were violated but declines to provide a remedy for that violation.� Majority op., ��50-51.� The majority apparently does not count leaving unremedied a violation of a defendant's constitutional rights as a negative impact or cost of today's decision.� I do, and so does the United States Supreme Court.
�65� In Arizona v. Gant, where the defendant's rights were
similarly violated, the United States Supreme Court noted that police
misapprehension of the constitution in searches incident to arrest "does
not establish the sort of reliance interest that could outweigh the
countervailing interest that all individuals share in having their
constitutional rights fully protected."�
129
�66� Second, today's decision effectively allows for selective protection of constitutional rights.� Under the majority's decision, an exclusionary remedy vindicates the constitutional right of the one defendant lucky enough to reach the United States Supreme Court (here, the defendant in Arizona v. Gant).� Yet other defendants, such as the defendant in the present case, who had the same right violated in the same way are denied the very same relief.� The protection of constitutional rights should not fall to the luck of the draw.�
�67� The United States Supreme Court ruled in Griffith v. Kentucky,
479
�68� By making an exception to the retroactivity rule for "good
faith," the majority's decision flatly violates
�69� The reasons for enforcing this "retroactivity rule" implicate fundamental values of judicial process and our legal system:� Courts should not render advisory opinions, and similarly situated defendants should be treated alike.�
�70� Griffith emphasized, first, that if courts announce their "best understanding" of constitutional principles but then choose not to apply those principles to the resolution of pending cases, "the Court's assertion of power to disregard current law . . . is quite simply an assertion that our constitutional function is not one of adjudication but in effect of legislation."��
[F]ailure to apply a newly declared constitutional rule to criminal cases pending on direct review violates basic norms of constitutional adjudication . . . . [T]he nature of judicial review requires that we adjudicate specific cases, and each case usually becomes the vehicle for announcement of a new rule.� But after we have decided a new rule in the case selected, the integrity of judicial review requires that we apply that rule to all similar cases pending on direct review.� Justice Harlan observed:
"If we do not resolve all cases before us on direct review in light of our best understanding of governing constitutional principles, it is difficult to see why we should so adjudicate any case at all . . . . In truth, the Court's assertion of power to disregard current law in adjudicating cases before us that have not already run the full course of appellate review, is quite simply an assertion that our constitutional function is not one of adjudication but in effect of legislation."
Griffith v. Kentucky,
479
�71� The second fundamental reason for applying the retroactivity rule, as Griffith explained, is to avoid the "actual inequity" of "fishing one case from the stream" while allowing other defendants to "flow by unaffected" by the proper interpretation of the constitution:.�
[W]e fulfill our judicial responsibility by instructing the lower courts to apply the new rule retroactively to cases not yet final. �Thus, it is the nature of judicial review that precludes us from "[s]imply fishing one case from the stream of appellate review, using it as a vehicle for pronouncing new constitutional standards, and then permitting a stream of similar cases subsequently to flow by unaffected by that new rule."
���� . . . .
[S]elective application of new rules violates the principle of treating similarly situated defendants the same. . . . [T]he problem with not applying new rules to cases pending on direct review is "the actual inequity that results when the Court chooses which of many similarly situated defendants should be the chance beneficiary" of a new rule.
Griffith v. Kentucky,
479
�72� The
majority thus disregards a direct holding of the United States Supreme Court by
applying a "good faith" exception to the retroactivity rule.[21]� In so doing, the majority flouts the
rationale for retroactivity, permitting in the present case the "actual
inequity" against which the retroactivity rule protects.�
�73� The
majority's reasoning is driven by the exclusionary rule and focuses on
potential deterrence of police misconduct.�
See majority op., ��35-38.�
This reasoning provides no real answer to the reasons why the United
States Supreme Court has made the retroactivity rule the law of the land.� Acknowledging that the exclusionary rule is
considered a remedy, rather than a right, still provides no basis either for
courts to dole out the remedy inequitably or to pronounce the boundaries of the
Fourth Amendment right in an advisory fashion.�
II
�74� The majority does not evaluate the costs to judicial integrity in this case, thus placing no weight on judicial integrity.� I cannot agree with this omission.� I continue to value judicial integrity, as do a long line of prior and continuing cases evaluating the exclusionary rule.� Moreover, I believe that judicial integrity is a concept that encompasses something more significant than simply prognosticating the likely effects of court decisions on future police behavior.� The majority has made two key mistakes regarding judicial integrity.
�75� First, while the majority acknowledges that proper resolution of this case requires squaring the retroactivity rule with the exclusionary rule, the majority does not assess the costs to judicial integrity and the judicial process, which the retroactivity rule protects.� In my view, these costs to judicial integrity are no less weighty than the deterrence rationale, which the majority treats as the only required analysis.� ��
�76� As explained above, the "judicial integrity" values
protected by the
�77� Thus
when the majority fails to factor judicial integrity into its resolution of the
present case, it continues to view the tension in this case only from the
perspective of the body of law which it prefers regarding the exclusionary
rule.� The majority thereby does not
actually resolve "the tension between two principles," which it
acknowledges and which the majority admits can be resolved in more than one
way.[23]�
�78� Second,
the majority has not acknowledged the traditional role of judicial integrity in
exclusionary rule analysis.�
�79� Thus
the majority is squarely at odds with the past and present holdings of this
court when it simply ignores this additional analysis relevant to exclusionary
rule analysis.� In my view, each case
requires an examination to determine whether judicial integrity is merely
another aspect of deterrence, as may have been true in the exclusionary rule
cases cited by the majority,[25]
or whether the integrity of judicial values and judicial processes provides a
separate and valid reason for excluding unlawfully-obtained evidence, given the
stakes raised in the particular case.�
�80� The majority apparently forgets that Wisconsin adopted the
exclusionary rule to effectuate Article 1, Section 11 of the Wisconsin
Constitution long before Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961), made the
federal courts' interpretation of the exclusionary rule binding in state courts
as a matter of federal law.� In 1923 this
court decided State v. Hoyer, "a watershed in
We see no reason in logic, justice, or in that innate sense of fair play, which lies at the foundation of such guaranties, why a court of justice, rejecting as abhorrent the idea of the use of evidence extorted by violation of a defendant's right to be secure in person and exempt from self-incrimination, though it may result in murder going unwhipt of justice, should yet approve of the use, in the same court of justice, by state officers, of that which has been obtained by other state officers through, and by a plain violation of constitutional guarantees of equal standing and value, though thereby possibly a violation of the prohibition law may go unpunished.
Section
11, art. 1, Wis. Const., supra, is a pledge of the faith of the state government
that the people of the state . . . shall be secure in their
persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable search and seizure. �This security has vanished, and the pledge is
violated by the state that guarantees it, when officers of state, acting under
color of state given authority, search and seize unlawfully. The pledge of this
provision and of section 8 are each violated when use is made of such evidence
in one of its own courts by other of its officers. �That a proper result��that is, a conviction of
one really guilty of an offense��may be thus reached is neither an excuse for,
nor a condonation of, the use by the state of that which is so the result of
its own violation of its own fundamental charter. Such a cynical indifference
to the state's obligations should not be judicial policy.
State v. Hoyer,
180
���� �81� The weight of Hoyer and its bearing on the emergence and rapid expansion of a good faith exception in Wisconsin was well articulated by Justice Prosser in his concurring opinion in State v. Orta, 2000 WI 4, ��6-15, 231 Wis. 2d 782, 791, 604 N.W.2d 543, 548, concluding that "[i]t may be possible to support a limited good faith exception to the exclusionary rule in a worthy case, with compelling facts, in which the court carefully articulates a rationale that squares with the storied Hoyer decision.� But not in Ward and not here."[26]� When this court last expanded the doctrine of "good faith" exceptions to the exclusionary rule in State v. Eason, 2001 WI 98, 245 Wis. 2d 206, 629 N.W.2d 625, it discussed Hoyer at length and adopted a good faith exception bottomed on the Wisconsin constitution, a rule that is more protective of individual rights than the rule applied by the federal courts.[27]�
�82� Thus the majority falls short when it fails to analyze judicial
integrity, an established rationale for suppressing unconstitutionally obtained
evidence from use in
III
�83� Having first bypassed application of the retroactivity rule and the norms it protects, and then having dismissed the notion that judicial integrity has any weight in this case, the majority acknowledges and addresses only one "real cost"; namely, "that litigants may have less incentive to challenge potentially unconstitutional searches."� Majority op., �45.
�84� The majority understates the impact that allowing a "good faith" exception for reliance by police on judicial decisions will have on the continuing and meaningful role of courts in adjudicating Fourth Amendment cases and protecting the constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.� Having articulated deterrence as the primary if not exclusive rationale for the exclusionary rule, the majority then adopts an exception to the rule that dramatically undermines its deterrent effect.
�85� The Honorable Lynn Adelman, a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, wisely reminds us that "[i]f we as a nation care about our Constitution, judges must continue to define and develop its guarantees . . . . It is the province of the judicial branch to say what the law is today, and it must continue to do so if that document is to have meaning tomorrow."[29]� However, judicial recognition of the good faith exception adopted by the majority will hamper the development of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence by eliminating the reason for defendants to bring constitutional challenges and by giving courts no occasion to clarify and articulate standards protective of Fourth Amendment rights.
�86� These concerns were articulated by Justice O'Connor in Illinois
v. Krull, 480
[T]he failure to apply the exclusionary rule in the very case in which a state statute is held to have violated the Fourth Amendment destroys all incentive on the part of individual criminal defendants to litigate the violation of their Fourth Amendment rights.� In my view, whatever "basic norms of constitutional adjudication" otherwise require, surely they mandate that a party appearing before the Court might conceivably benefit from a judgment in his favor. . . . [T]he inevitable result of the Court's decision to deny the realistic possibility of an effective remedy to a party challenging statutes not yet declared unconstitutional is that a chill will fall upon enforcement and development of Fourth Amendment principles . . . .[30]�
�87� However prescient Justice O'Connor's articulation of these concerns with regard to the constitutional challenge to statutes, the concerns are much greater in extending a "good faith" exception to deny any meaningful remedy when the case law is later determined to be incorrect and unconstitutional.
�88� The effect of the majority's new "good faith" exception will most likely be that courts will examine first whether the good faith exception applies, and if it does, will not determine whether a violation of the Fourth Amendment occurred.� As one commentator explained:
Judicial recognition of a good faith exception to the fourth amendment exclusionary rule would be more than a simple refinement of remedy. �The exception would serve as a well camouflaged and subtle attack upon the values and substantive meaning of the amendment itself. �Courts rarely would articulate new search and seizure standards sensitive to fourth amendment interests because once a court found police good faith the constitutional determination would be irrelevant to the outcome of those very cases in which such articulation might take place. Insulated from the continuing pressure to decide new fourth amendment issues or dramatically review old ones, courts will lose the opportunity or incentive to set standards for future cases. �Consequently, the disincentive to review new fourth amendment issues will reduce significantly the exclusionary rule's ability to generally and systemically deter illegal police behavior.
�89� As another commentator explains, the extension of the
�90� If the preliminary issue that the court addresses is whether a law enforcement officer was acting in good faith, "[w]hen a court finds the existence of such a [good faith] belief, the actual constitutionality of the officer�s behavior . . . becomes irrelevant" and the need to refine Fourth Amendment doctrine is eliminated.[32]� Thus, the unfortunate result of expanding the scope of the good faith exception is that courts that apply the exception will "tell us nothing about the requirements of the Fourth Amendment and often very little about the requirements of the good faith doctrine, and constitutional law stagnates accordingly."� Adelman & Deitrich, 2 Fed. Cts. L. Rev. at 89. Indeed, if the good faith exception had been applied in Arizona v. Gant, that case almost certainly never would have been brought before the United States Supreme Court because the government could have claimed "good faith" reliance on Belton.� The constitutional rule now articulated by Gant never would have been given effect.
�91� The majority asserts three reasons to disregard this problem of stagnation.� First, the majority claims that "the only litigants who will be disincentivized are the relatively small number of defendants who choose to challenge searches that have already clearly and unequivocally been held lawful."� Majority op., �46.� By acknowledging that the good faith exception affects only a small number of defendants, the majority also implicitly admits that the costs of applying the exclusionary rule would be low.� Furthermore, the majority ignores the fact that this small group of litigants who are willing and in a position to challenge prevailing standards may be the most important group questioning whether the currently governing case law embodies a correct interpretation of the Fourth Amendment.
�92� Second, the majority asserts that "criminal defendants will still want to do whatever they can to increase their chances for success" and will continue to fight for their freedom despite the low probability of a material change in their conviction.� Majority op., �47.� That defendants may raise and argue claims does not mean that the courts will decide the Fourth Amendment issue if they can avoid it by deciding the case under "good faith."
�93� Finally, the majority places its trust in a "dedicated group of public defenders and private attorneys who genuinely care about the development of the law" to continue to take cases to this court "in order to effect a particular change in the law."� Majority op., �48.
�94� The defendants' desire to fight for their freedom and the continuing efforts of dedicated lawyers do not address the issue of excusing the courts from articulating and developing Fourth Amendment law.� Even if constitutional issues are consistently raised before the courts, the courts will have no opportunity to address the Fourth Amendment protections if the issue is effectively insulated by a "good faith" exception.� Defendants will bring cases, but where "good faith" applies, that doctrine will resolve the issue unless courts become willing to render what amount to advisory opinions on Fourth Amendment issues not needed to decide the case.
IV
�95� Neither State v. Ward nor Illinois v. Krull discussed the tension presented in this case, and neither provides persuasive or controlling reasons why in the present case the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule should control instead of the normal application of the retroactivity rule.� The briefs in Ward did not argue the tension between the retroactivity rule and the exclusionary rule, and the opinion did not address it.[33]�
�96� The majority asserts that it can find no reason to distinguish this
case from the Ward and Krull cases.� There is a distinction.� In Ward as in Eason, the
seminal cases in which
�97� Searches conducted pursuant to a warrant differ fundamentally from
searches conducted without a warrant but pursuant to one of the narrowly drawn
exceptions that allow police to conduct a search without a warrant.[36]� "Search warrants are an essential
safeguard against government overreaching.�
They protect privacy in persons, houses, papers, and effects by
requiring a neutral magistrate to make an independent determination . . . before authorizing a
government search."� State v.
Ward, 231
�98� There is a substantial difference between on the one hand
recognizing "objective good faith" reliance where a neutral and
detached judicial officer has reviewed facts submitted in an affidavit to
determine whether the constitution permits a search, and on the other hand
extending "objective good faith" reliance to legal judgments made by
police officers without the judicial check of the warrant process.� "The point of the Fourth Amendment,
which often is not grasped by zealous officers, is not that it denies law
enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from
evidence. �Its protection consists in
requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate
instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive
enterprise of ferreting out crime." �Johnson v.
�99� As the majority explains, the holding in Ward was not by
itself limited to reliance on an issuance of a warrant.� See Ward, 231
�100 As the majority acknowledges, application of the exclusionary rule
turns on a balancing of costs and benefits, forcing an inquiry of whether it is
"worth the price paid by the justice system" to permit use of the
evidence unlawfully obtained.[39]� By contrast, the retroactivity rule is
applied categorically, with "no exception for cases in which the new rule
constitutes a 'clear break' with the past."� See majority op., �31 (quoting Griffith v.
Kentucky, 479
�101 Moreover,
the "objective reasonable reliance" on precedent trumpeted by the
majority is far more credible and easier to administer in a case like Ward
where police acted with warrant in hand than in a case like the present one
where police acted without a warrant.[41]
�102 The
majority opens the door to a "good faith" exception in cases where
police act on their own evaluation of the case law rather than in reliance on
the evaluation of a neutral and detached magistrate.� This raises a range of problems not presented
by previously adopted "good faith" reliance on a warrant or a
statute.� Among them, the majority's
standard of "objectively reasonable reliance upon clear and settled
V
�103 As I have demonstrated, and as
�104 I would not adopt the majority opinion's "good faith" exception to the exclusionary rule.� I would apply the retroactivity rule of Griffith v. Kentucky to require that the evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment, as interpreted in Arizona v. Gant, should be suppressed in the present case.�
�105 Accordingly, I dissent.
�106 I am authorized to state that Justice ANN WALSH BRADLEY joins this opinion.
[1] State v.
Dearborn, 2008 WI App 131, 313
[2]
[3] The parties also
briefed and argued the question of whether
[4] On the issue of the
required unanimity in a jury verdict (see supra note 3), the court of
appeals held that Wis. Stat. � 29.951 defines one crime with multiple modes of
commission (assault, resist, or obstruct), rather than multiple crimes.� Dearborn, 313
[5] On review before this Court, the parties agree that this issue should be heard regardless of whether it was waived.
[6] The Fourth Amendment to the
United States Constitution states:
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 no
Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or
affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the
persons or things to be seized.
The text of Article 1, Section 11 of the Wisconsin Constitution is identical but for minor variances in capitalization and punctuation.
[7] The only exception to
this consistent tradition of interpreting the
[8] See also United States v. Davis, 598 F.3d 1259, 1262 (11th Cir. 2010) ("We, like most other courts, had read Belton to mean that police could search a vehicle incident to a recent occupant's arrest regardless of the occupant's actual control over the passenger compartment."); United States v. McCane, 573 F.3d 1037, 1041 (10th Cir. 2009) ("Tenth Circuit precedent anteceding Gant was not an exception" to the generally accepted reading of Belton.).
[9] The dissent in Fry
would have given greater protections under Wis. Stat. � 986.11 and the Wisconsin Constitution; it rejected
what it called the "Belton rule."� State v. Fry, 131
[10] Chief Justice Abrahamson
argues that
The Chief Justice fails to appreciate the difference between a constitutional
violation and a remedy for that violation.�
See dissent, �67 n.2.� The
retroactivity rule requires that we apply the newly announced rule to
[11] See, e.g., United
States v. Gonzalez, 578 F.3d 1130 (9th Cir. 2009); State
v. McCarty, 229 P.3d 1041 (
[12] See, e.g., United States v. Davis, 598 F.3d 1259 (11th Cir. 2010); United States v. McCane, 573 F.3d 1037 (10th Cir. 2009); State v. Baker, 229 P.3d 650 (Utah 2010).
[13] Much of Chief Justice Abrahamson's dissent rests on her fundamental disagreement with this most basic principle.� She laments, for example, that our opinion "leaves an acknowledged constitutional violation unremedied."� See, e.g., dissent, ��54, 66.� That is true; but it is true whenever the remedy of exclusion is held to be inappropriate.� Her quarrel is with the law, not with our reasoning.
[14] Chief Justice Abrahamson
has never liked the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule.�
She obviously prefers the law as it stood in 1923
following this court's decision in State v. Hoyer, 180
[15] Krull was
decided just three years after the delineation of the good faith exception
announced in
[16] The clear case law relied on
by the police in Ward was this court's decision in State v. Richards,
201
[17] The North Dakota Supreme Court reached the same result in State v. Herrick, 588 N.W.2d 847 (N.D. 1999).
[18] Chief Justice Abrahamson asserts that she can distinguish these cases, but we can find no discernible principle emerging from her writing.� See dissent, �96.� Her argument appears to boil down to attempts at factual distinctions without a difference.� Ward in particular is a mirror image of this case.� But it does not uphold Chief Justice Abrahamson's vision for the exclusionary rule, and thus, it appears she will not abide by its rule.
[19] "Good faith"
may also arise under the Wisconsin Constitution's protection against
unreasonable search and seizures.�
[20] The majority opinion
quotes this language from
See also
[21] Not surprisingly, in choosing
not to follow the
The majority's election not to follow the clear rule of Griffith may be startling, since by its own terms, Griffith is binding on "all cases, state or federal," while the majority acknowledges that application of the exclusionary rule is a matter of judicial policy, that is, a remedy that turns on a balancing of costs and benefits and that this court may decide is either warranted or not in a case.� See majority op., ��35-38; see also State v. Ward, 2000 WI 3, �48, 231 Wis. 2d 723, 604 N.W.2d 517 ("Whether the purpose of the exclusionary rule is solely remedial or also a matter of judicial integrity, the Supreme Court has made clear that for Fourth Amendment purposes 'the policies behind the exclusionary rule are not absolute.� Rather, they must be evaluated in light of competing policies.'" (quoted source omitted)).
[22] As the majority acknowledges,
different jurisdictions have already divided in their resolutions of the
tension between the retroactivity rule and the "good faith"
exception to the exclusionary rule.� The
result is that defendants in
[23] See majority op., �30, �34 (acknowledging that other courts have reached divided results in resolving the tension between the retroactivity rule and the exclusionary rule).
[24] Other authorities have also traditionally treated judicial integrity as a rationale that is distinct and separate from deterrence: "The deterrence of unreasonable searches and seizures is a major purpose of the exclusionary rule. . . . But the rule serves other purposes as well.� There is for example, . . . 'the imperative of judicial integrity,' namely, that the courts do not become 'accomplices in willful disobedience of a Constitution they are sworn to uphold.'"� Black's Law Dictionary (8th ed. 2004), exclusionary rule (quoting Wayne R. LaFave & Jerold H. Israel, Criminal Procedure � 3.1, at 107 (2d ed. 1992)).
[25] See State v.
Hess, 2010 WI 82, �65,
___
[26] See also Ward,
231
[27] See also Eason,
245
[28] See Ward, 231 Wis. 2d 723, �58 ("[E]ven if our exclusionary rule were no more than a judicially created remedy, this Court would maintain the obligation to ensure that the remedy effectuates [state constitutional] rights." (quoting and adopting the statements of State v. Oakes, 598 A.2d 119, 121 (Vt. 1991); id., �59 ("[I]t would be a sad irony for this court to exhort magistrates to act as something more than 'rubber stamps' when issuing warrants, and to then act as mere rubber stamps ourselves when interpreting our Wisconsin� Constitution. �It is our responsibility to examine the State Constitution independently. �This duty exists even though our conclusions in a given case may not differ from those reached by the Supreme Court when it interprets the Fourth Amendment.").
[29] Lynn Adelman & Jon Deitrich, Saying What the Law Is:� How Certain Legal Doctrines Impede the Development of Constitutional Law and What Courts Can Do About It, 2 Fed. Cts. L. Rev. 87, 98 (2007).
[30] Illinois v. Krull,
480
[31] Adelman & Deitrich, supra note 11, at 89.
For a persuasive and informal articulation of the
problem see Orin Kerr, Good Faith Exception for Changing Law: Exclusionary
Rule on Direct Appeal, http://volokh.com/2010/03/02/the-good-faith-exception-and-changing-law-the-benefit-of-the-exclusionary-rule-on-direct-appeal/
(last visited July 6, 2010).� Professor
Kerr explains that one result of disincentivizing criminal defendants from
bringing hard cases on issues with courts divided around the country would be
the creation of systemic imbalance in the development of Fourth Amendment
rules.� If
[32]
[33] The majority contends that "the dissent in Ward raised issues similar to those raised by the dissent in Krull" and argued in the present case.� The cited portion of the dissent raises the point that the "good faith" reliance applied in Ward may arise from "any published decision of the court of appeals or this court."� Neither the dissent nor the majority engaged the central issue in this case, which is not about what cases may give rise to "good faith" reliance but whether the "good faith" exception can trump the retroactivity rule for cases pending on direct appeal.
[34] State v. Ward, 2000 WI 3, �10, 231 Wis. 2d 723, 604 N.W.2d 517; (police acted with a warrant authorizing a no-knock entry; the court ultimately determined that "the evidence is admissible under the Wisconsin Constitution because the officers relied upon a rule established by this court" and did not address reliance on the warrant, �63 n.8).
[35] See majority
op., �41 (discussing Illinois
v. Krull, 480
[36] Whether the exceptions
to the warrant requirement are actually "narrowly drawn" in practice
or only in denomination is a slightly different and perhaps contested
question.� See State v.
Robinson, 2010 WI 80, �54,
[37] See People v. McCarty, 229
P.3d 1041, 1044 (
[T]he Court has created an exception for objective good-faith reliance on judicially-issued warrants, see Leon, 468 U.S. at 922, 104 S. Ct. 3405; Massachusetts v. Sheppard, 468 U.S. 981, 987-88, 104 S. Ct. 3424, 82 L. Ed. 2d 737 (1984); see also Arizona v. Evans, 514 U.S. 1, 16, 115 S. Ct. 1185, 131 L. Ed. 2d 34 (1995) (recognizing "a categorical exception to the exclusionary rule for clerical errors of court employees"); for certain kinds of Fourth Amendment violations in executing those warrants, see Hudson v. Michigan, 547 U.S. 586, 594, 126 S. Ct. 2159, 165 L. Ed. 2d 56 (2006) (violation of knock and announce rule); and even for sufficiently attenuated reliance on withdrawn judicial warrants that remained in the system due to executive branch negligence, see Herring v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S. Ct. 695, 698, 172 L. Ed. 2d 496 (2009).� It has similarly recognized an exception for objective good-faith reliance on legislation, subsequently held to be unconstitutional, designating particular conduct criminal, see Michigan v. DeFillippo, 443 U.S. 31, 38, 99 S. Ct. 2627, 61 L. Ed. 2d 343 (1979), or excusing the warrant requirement for non-criminal, administrative investigations, see Illinois v. Krull, 480 U.S. 340, 349-50, 107 S. Ct. 1160, 94 L. Ed. 2d 364 (1987).� It has thus far not, however, recognized a good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule for reliance on prior holdings of its own from which it has subsequently departed, much less for reliance on the erroneous interpretations of its prior holdings by lower courts.
[38] Ward, 231
[39] See majority
op., �36 (quoting Herring,
129
As stated in Herring, the exclusionary rule balance generally turns on whether "exclusion can meaningfully deter" police misconduct and whether "such deterrence is worth the price paid by the justice system."� Herring did not address benefits of exclusion other than deterrence of police misconduct.� The majority follows the same approach in the present case.� Because this case presents a situation where the exclusionary rule must be overtly reconciled with the retroactivity rule, the necessary balancing turns on a broader set of considerations, drawn from both of the competing doctrines.�
[40] Ward, 231
[41] The Seventh Circuit Court of
Appeals has clearly distinguished between "good faith" reliance on a
search warrant and "good faith" reliance on police understanding and
application of court decisions:
We decline to extend further the applicability of the good-faith exception to evidence seized during law enforcement searches conducted in naked reliance upon subsequently overruled case law��as distinguished from the subsequently invalidated statute at issue in Krull��absent magistrate approval by way of a search warrant. �Such expansion of the good-faith exception would have undesirable, unintended consequences, principal among them being an implicit invitation to officers in the field to engage in the tasks��better left to the judiciary and members of the bar more generally��of legal research and analysis.
Explaining the importance of the distinction between judicial and police evaluation of facts at greater length in the context of a probable cause determination, the Western District of Michigan reasoned:
The difficulties facing courts making probable cause determinations and interpreting case law, however, are small in comparison to those facing police officers.� Officers are particularly poorly situated to determine whether the facts of a particular case establish probable cause to search because they lack "the detached scrutiny of a neutral magistrate."� Indeed, the "judgment of a law enforcement officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime" is considerably less reliable than that of a neutral court.� The expansions of the good-faith doctrine have shown that courts do not wish to entrust to the executive branch law enforcement the unilateral power to make probable cause determinations based on their own reading of case law.�