SAN DIEGO DISTRICT ATTORNEY The Fourth Amendment and ...

1104, 1120 [104 Cal. Rptr. 3d 727, 224 P.3d 55]; see Bell v.
Wolfish (1979), 441 U.S. 520 at p. 559 [“Courts must consider the
scope of the particular intrusion, the manner in which it is
conducted, the justification for initiating it, and the place in which
it is conducted.”]’.)” (People v. Boulter (2011) 199 Cal.App.4 th
761.)
Whren v. United States, supra, involved the use of a “pretext” to make a
traffic stop (i.e., using a traffic infraction when the officers’ real
motivation involved an issue not supported by the necessary reasonable
suspicion), the U.S. Supreme Court deciding such a tactic was lawful so
long as there was some lawful reason justifying the stop. (See “Pretext
Stops,” above.)
The Rule of Whren:
Per Whren, so long as there is some lawful justification for
making the stop, the officers’ subjective motivations are
irrelevant. (Ibid; see also United States v. Miranda-
Guerena (9 th Cir. 2006) 445 F.3 rd 1233.)
Arguably, the same theory applies to a search or
seizure. So long as the search or seizure is lawful, it
should matter not whether the officer, in his or her
own mind, believed it to be lawful.
The “pretext stop” theory of Whren v. United States
applies to civil parking violations as well as any criminal
violation. (United States v. Choudhry (9 th Cir. 2006) 461
F.3 rd 1097.)
Also, a law enforcement officer’s actions, so long as
objectively reasonable, might still result in the admissibility
of illegally seized evidence because of the “good faith”
exception. (United States v. Leon (1984) 468 U.S. 897 [82
L.Ed.2 nd 677]; see also People v. Hull (1995) 34
Cal.App.4 th 1448.) (See “Good Faith,” below.)
And see Arkansas v. Sullivan (2001) 532 U.S. 769 [149
L.Ed.2 nd 944]: Because Whren involves an interpretation
of the Fourth Amendment, individual states are not
entitled to impose a stricter interpretation upon law
enforcement unless they choose to use their own state
constitution (i.e., “Independent State Grounds”) as their
authority.
© 2012 Robert C. Phillips. All rights reserved
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