Judge Gorsuch and the Fourth Amendment – Stanford Law Review Online

Introduction

Before Justice Scalia, pragmatic balancing tests dominated the Courts Fourth Amendment doctrine. 1Open this footnote Close this footnote 1 See David A. Sklansky, The Fourth Amendment and Common Law, 100 Colum. L. Rev. 1739, 1739-43 (2000). Open this footnote Close But by 2008, Justice Scalia had succeeded in reframing the Courts analysis. In an opinion joined by seven other Justices, he wrote: In determining whether a search or seizure is unreasonable, we begin with history. We look to the statutes and common law of the founding era to determine the norms that the Fourth Amendment was meant to preserve. 2Open this footnote Close this footnote 2 Virginiav. Moore, 553 U.S. 164, 168 (2008). Open this footnote Close

Like Justice Scalia, Judge Gorsuch has advocated an originalist interpretation of the Fourth Amendment. But he has not applied that originalist approach to all Fourth Amendment questions. This Essay traces Judge Gorsuchs jurisprudence in two areas of Fourth Amendment doctrine. PartI considers his decisions regarding searches of homes and personal property, where he has adopted and extended Justice Scalias common law approach. PartII contrasts that approach with Judge Gorsuchs decisions regarding Terry stops, where he has proven even more willing than many of his peers to employ the sort of totality of the circumstances inquiry that Justice Scalia so eschewed. In each Part, we also consider how Judge Gorsuchs particular brand of originalism might impact Fourth Amendment issues looming on the Courts horizon.

I. Trespassory Searches of Personal Property

Between 2001 and 2013, Justice Scalia resurrected the Supreme Courts pre-1967 trespass test for Fourth Amendment searches. Over three opinionsKyllov. United States, 3Open this footnote Close this footnote 3 533 U.S. 27 (2001). Open this footnote Close United States v. Jones, 4Open this footnote Close this footnote 4 132 S. Ct. 945 (2012). Open this footnote Close and Florida v. Jardines 5Open this footnote Close this footnote 5 133 S. Ct. 1409 (2013). Open this footnote Close he developed an alternative to Katzs reasonable expectations of privacy test 6Open this footnote Close this footnote 6 United States v. Katz, 389 U.S. 347, 361 (1967) (Harlan, J., concurring). Open this footnote Close rooted in eighteenth-century tort law. When Justice Scalia passed away in 2016, many commentators thought this strain of doctrine might die with him. 7Open this footnote Close this footnote 7 See, e.g., Lawrence Rosenthal, The Court After Scalia: Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence at a Crossroads, SCOTUSblog (Sept. 9, 2016, 5:31 PM), https://shar.es/1UYXYc. Open this footnote Close But Judge Gorsuch, as his opinions in United Statesv. Carloss 8Open this footnote Close this footnote 8 818 F.3d 988 (10th Cir. 2016). Open this footnote Close and United Statesv. Ackerman 9Open this footnote Close this footnote 9 831 F.3d 1292 (10th Cir. 2016). Open this footnote Close show, is likely not just to preserve Justice Scalias trespass test, but to expand it.

A. United States v. Carloss

In Jardines, the Court explained that even though a homes curtilage is a Fourth Amendment protected space, police are permitted to walk up to your door and knock on it based on an implied licensethe same implied license granted to Girl Scouts selling cookies. 10Open this footnote Close this footnote 10 Jardines, 133 S. Ct. at 1415-16. Open this footnote Close In Carloss, the Tenth Circuit addressed whether that implied license persists when a homeowner places three No Trespassing signs along the path from the street to the door and a fourth on the door itself. 11Open this footnote Close this footnote 11 Carloss, 818 F.3d at 1003-04 (Gorsuch, J., dissenting). Open this footnote Close Judge Gorsuch, dissenting, argued that it does not.

Relying on Justice Scalias originalist reasoning in Jardines, Judge Gorsuch observed that the implied license enjoyed by police is the same as that enjoyed by private visitors. 12Open this footnote Close this footnote 12 Id. at 1006 (describing the implied license as one entitling the officers to do no more than any private citizen might (quoting Jardines, 133 S. Ct. at 1416)). Open this footnote Close At common law, that implied license could be revoked at will by the homeowner. 13Open this footnote Close this footnote 13 Id. Open this footnote Close And once revoked, police as well as private visitors were liable for trespass. 14Open this footnote Close this footnote 14 Id. Open this footnote Close Because the No Trespassing signs communicated the homeowners intent to revoke this license, Judge Gorsuch argued, police violated the Fourth Amendment when they entered the homes curtilage without a warrant. 15Open this footnote Close this footnote 15 Id. at 1005-06. Open this footnote Close

B. United States v. Ackerman

Whereas Carloss dealt with physical property, in Ackerman, Judge Gorsuch applied Justice Scalias trespass theory to searches of digital property: e-mails. In Jones, the Court held that the government conducts a search when it obtains information by physically intruding on a constitutionally protected areaincluding when, as in Jones itself, police place a GPS tracking device on the underside of suspects car. 16Open this footnote Close this footnote 16 United Statesv. Jones, 132 S. Ct. 945, 948, 950 n.3 (2012). Open this footnote Close In Ackerman, Judge Gorsuch applied Jones to e-mail searches for child pornography, writing that the warrantless opening and examination of... private correspondence... seems pretty clearly to qualify as exactly the type of trespass to chattels that the framers sought to prevent when they adopted the Fourth Amendment. 17Open this footnote Close this footnote 17 United Statesv. Ackerman, 831 F.3d 1292, 1307-08 (10th Cir. 2016) (citing Ex parte Jackson, 96 U.S. 727, 733 (1878)). Open this footnote Close

In applying the trespass test to digital searches, Judge Gorsuch takes Jones further than Justice Scalia himself was willing to go. In Jones, Justice Scalia had written that [s]ituations involving merely the transmission of electronic signals without trespass would remain subject to Katz analysis, not the Jones trespass test. 18Open this footnote Close this footnote 18 Jones, 132 S. Ct. at 953 (emphasis omitted). Open this footnote Close But Judge Gorsuch concluded differently in Ackerman. True, he conceded, the Framers had been concerned with physical, not virtual, correspondence. 19Open this footnote Close this footnote 19 Ackerman, 831 F.3d at 1308. Open this footnote Close Nevertheless, he wrote, a more obvious analogy from principle to new technology is hard to imagine. 20Open this footnote Close this footnote 20 Id. Open this footnote Close

C. Implications

In Jones, Justice Scalia explained that the Katz reasonable-expectation-of-privacy test has been added to, not substituted for, the common-law trespassory test. 21Open this footnote Close this footnote 21 Jones, 132 S. Ct. at 952 (emphases omitted). Open this footnote Close Katz and Jones, then, are alternative theories of Fourth Amendment protection. But because Jones was not decided until 2012, it is in tension with portions of the Courts doctrine decided between 1967 (Katz) and 2012 (Jones). Judge Gorsuch, relying on Jones, might look to resolve that tension in at least two areas of Fourth Amendment lawsearches of open fields and testing of potential contrabandand to expand Joness approach into a third (digital searches).

In Oliver v. United States, a 1984 case, the Court held that police had not violated the Fourth Amendment when they bypassed a No Trespassing sign to enter a suspects farmland. 22Open this footnote Close this footnote 22 See 466 U.S. 170, 176 (1984) (invoking the Fourth Amendments language protecting persons, houses, papers, and effects (quoting Hesterv. United States, 265 U.S. 57, 59 (1924))). Open this footnote Close The Court distinguished open fields from curtilage, which is afforded the same protection as the home. 23Open this footnote Close this footnote 23 Id. at 176-81. Open this footnote Close Judge Gorsuch, for his part, does not dispute that distinction. 24Open this footnote Close this footnote 24 United States v. Carloss, 818 F.3d 988, 1009 (10th Cir. 2016) (Gorsuch, J., dissenting). Open this footnote Close But he nevertheless suggested in Carloss that curtilage historically encompassed a space much larger than just the areas, like the front porch, immediately surrounding the home. 25Open this footnote Close this footnote 25 See id. at 1005 n.1 (At common law the curtilage was far more expansive than the front porch, sometimes said to reach as far as an English longbow shotsome 200 yardsfrom the dwelling house.). Open this footnote Close

In United States v. Jacobsen, another 1984 case, police conducted a field test for cocaine on white powder found in a damaged package. 26Open this footnote Close this footnote 26 466 U.S. 109, 111-12 (1984). Open this footnote Close The Court, invoking Katz, upheld the search, concluding that there could be no reasonable expectation of privacy in contraband. 27Open this footnote Close this footnote 27 Id. at 122-23, 122 n.22. Open this footnote Close But in Ackerman, Judge Gorsuch suggested that Jacobsen was wrongly decided. 28Open this footnote Close this footnote 28 See United Statesv. Ackerman, 831 F.3d 1292, 1307 (10th Cir. 2016). Open this footnote Close Because police destroyed a trace amount of private property to conduct their test, in light of Jones, it seems at least possible the Court today would find a search did take place. 29Open this footnote Close this footnote 29 Id. Open this footnote Close

Judge Gorsuch might also seek to expand the Jones approach to digital searches, as he did in Ackerman. In that case, he applied common law principles to digital searches, relying on the obvious analogy from letters to e-mails. 30Open this footnote Close this footnote 30 Id. at 1308. Open this footnote Close But Ackerman is at odds with the Courts method in Rileyv. California 31Open this footnote Close this footnote 31 134 S. Ct. 2473 (2014). Open this footnote Close a post-Jones decision. In Riley, the government proposed a similar approach to the one employed by Judge Gorsuch, arguing that the Fourth Amendment permits searching cell phone data incident to arrest if [police] could have obtained the same information from a pre-digital counterpart. 32Open this footnote Close this footnote 32 Riley, 134 S. Ct. at 2493. Open this footnote Close But the Riley Court rejected that analogue test because it would launch courts on a difficult line-drawing expedition. 33Open this footnote Close this footnote 33 Id. Open this footnote Close The Court then asked, in a question suggesting that Judge Gorsuchs analogy is not so obvious: Is an e-mail equivalent to a letter? 34Open this footnote Close this footnote 34 Id. Open this footnote Close

Judge Gorsuchs Ackerman opinion came after Riley, so he clearly has not rejected extending Jones through an analogue test. Convincing the Court to adopt that approach, however, will likely prove more difficult.

II. Terry Stops and Frisks

Judge Gorsuchs highly originalist approach to the Fourth Amendment in Carloss and Ackerman is difficult to reconcile with his wholesale acceptance of the stop-and-frisk doctrine under Terry v. Ohio. 35Open this footnote Close this footnote 35 392 U.S. 1 (1968). Open this footnote Close Terry allows an officer to stop and, in some cases, frisk a person on the street if the officer reasonably...conclude[s]...that criminal activity may be afoot and that the persons with whom he is dealing may be armed and presently dangerous. 36Open this footnote Close this footnote 36 Id. at 30. Open this footnote Close But Terry was a pragmaticnot an originalistdecision. Scholars and judges seeking a historical hook for Terry have uncovered little evidence linking Terrys stop and frisks to police actions at common law. 37Open this footnote Close this footnote 37 See Lawrence Rosenthal, Pragmatism, Originalism, Race, and the Case Against Terry v. Ohio, 43 Tex. Tech L. Rev. 299, 330-37 (2010); Sklansky, supra note 1, at 1804-06. For a tentative originalist explanation of Terrys stops, if not its frisks, see Minnesotav. Dickerson, 508 U.S. 366, 380 (1993) (Scalia, J., concurring). Open this footnote Close

Despite the doctrines shaky originalist footing, Judge Gorsuch has consistently ruled in favor of the government when criminal defendants have challenged the legality of stop and frisks 38Open this footnote Close this footnote 38 See, e.g., United Statesv. Willis, 533 F. Appx 849, 850-51 (10th Cir. 2013) (finding reasonable suspicion to stop and frisk an African American man when a caller reported a disturbance with a gun involving a black man wearing a gray shirt). Open this footnote Close and traffic stops. 39Open this footnote Close this footnote 39 See, e.g., United Statesv. Lopez, 518 F.3d 790, 797-800 (10th Cir. 2008). For a longer discussion of Lopez, see note 54 below. Open this footnote Close As his opinion in United Statesv. Nicholson 40Open this footnote Close this footnote 40 721 F.3d 1236 (10th Cir. 2013). Open this footnote Close makes clear, he is more likely to protect and expand existing stop-and-frisk doctrine than he is to offer a new, originalist critique of Terry.

A. United States v. Nicholson

In Nicholson, a police officer pulled over the defendants vehicle, mistakenly believing that a city ordinance prohibited a left turn he had made. 41Open this footnote Close this footnote 41 Id. at 1237. Open this footnote Close Applying Tenth Circuit precedent, the majority held the officers mistaken understanding of the law rendered the stop categorically unreasonable. 42Open this footnote Close this footnote 42 Id. at 1238, 1241-42; see also United Statesv. Tibbetts, 396 F.3d 1132, 1138 (10th Cir. 2005) ([F]ailure to understand the law by the very person charged with enforcing it is not objectively reasonable.); United Statesv. DeGasso, 369 F.3d 1139, 1144-45 (10th Cir. 2004) (holding that an officers failure to understand the plain and unambiguous law he is charged with enforcing...is not objectively reasonable). Open this footnote Close

Judge Gorsuch dissented, arguing that mistakes of law are per se unreasonable only where the law is unambiguous, [and] the error plain. 43Open this footnote Close this footnote 43 See Nicholson, 721 F.3d at 1248 (Gorsuch, J., dissenting). Open this footnote Close He emphasized that under Terry, the central Fourth Amendment inquiry is whether the government has acted reasonably 44Open this footnote Close this footnote 44 Id. Open this footnote Close whether a reasonable and prudent officer would have acted as [the officer] did in the circumstances. 45Open this footnote Close this footnote 45 Id. at 1249 (quoting Ornelasv. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 695 (1996)). Open this footnote Close He explained this approach will rarely yield...a neat set of legal rules 46Open this footnote Close this footnote 46 Id. at 1248 (quoting United Statesv. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 7 (1989)). Open this footnote Close or bright-line tests. 47Open this footnote Close this footnote 47 Id. (quoting Floridav. Harris, 133 S. Ct. 1050, 1055 (2013)). Open this footnote Close Rather, the analysis will typically favor a case-by-case approach that takes a realistic view of human capacities and limitations. 48Open this footnote Close this footnote 48 Id. Open this footnote Close He concluded, therefore, that an officers mistaken understanding of the law should be assessed based on the totality of the circumstances. 49Open this footnote Close this footnote 49 Id. at 1248-49. Open this footnote Close

At the time, the Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits had all held categorically that an officers mistake of law could not justify a stop. 50Open this footnote Close this footnote 50 See United Statesv. McDonald, 453 F.3d 958, 962 (7th Cir. 2006); United Statesv. Chanthasouxat, 342 F.3d 1271, 1279-80 (11th Cir. 2003); United Statesv. King, 244 F.3d 736, 741 (9th Cir. 2001); United Statesv. Miller, 146 F.3d 274, 279 (5th Cir. 1998). Open this footnote Close Only the Eighth Circuit had held otherwise. 51Open this footnote Close this footnote 51 See United Statesv. Rodriguez-Lopez, 444 F.3d 1020, 1022-23 (8th Cir. 2006). Open this footnote Close But in an 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court ultimately adopted the minority approachJudge Gorsuchs approachin Heienv. North Carolina. 52Open this footnote Close this footnote 52 135 S. Ct. 530 (2014). Open this footnote Close

B. Implications

Legal scholars and advocates have frequently criticized Terry and its amorphous reasonableness standard for granting police too much discretion. 53Open this footnote Close this footnote 53 See Rosenthal, supra note 37, at 300-01, 300 n.7 (collecting literature). Open this footnote Close But Judge Gorsuchs jurisprudence suggests that rather than introducing originalist limits on Terry, he will protect and expand the substantial discretion Terry grants to police officers.

In Nicholson, Judge Gorsuch both emphasized Terrys pragmatic focus on the reasonableness of a stop and encouraged courts to conduct case-by-case analyses. This approach is unlikely to generate new, bright-line rules cabining police discretion under Terry. Judge Gorsuch also appears willing to show officers a great deal of deference when evaluating the reasonableness of their conduct, 54Open this footnote Close this footnote 54 See, e.g., United Statesv. Lopez, 518 F.3d 790, 797-800 (10th Cir. 2008). In Lopez, officers stopped the defendants truck after seeing a man place a cooler in the bed of the truck. Id. at 798. The trial court determined the officers observations were insufficient to create reasonable suspicion that there were drugs in the cooler; they amounted to inchoate suspicions and unparticularized hunches. United Statesv. Lopez, 485 F. Supp. 2d 1226, 1236 (D. Kan. 2007). Judge Gorsuch overturned that finding, emphasizing the officers training and experience in detecting drug sales. See Lopez, 518 F.3d at 792, 797-800. Open this footnote Close suggesting that, as a practical matter, he may not see bright-line rules as useful or desirable.

One specific Terry challenge the Court may soon confront is the tension between more expansive Second Amendment rights 55Open this footnote Close this footnote 55 See, e.g., District of Columbiav. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 635-36 (2007). Open this footnote Close and broad police discretion to conduct stop and frisks. In an opinion joined by Judge Gorsuch, the Tenth Circuit in United Statesv. Rodriguez 56Open this footnote Close this footnote 56 739 F.3d 481 (10th Cir. 2013). Open this footnote Close held that officers can stop and frisk individuals simply because they are carrying concealed firearms, even if the jurisdiction allows for permitted concealed carry. 57Open this footnote Close this footnote 57 Id. at 486-87, 491 (citing N.M. Stat. Ann. 30-7-2). Open this footnote Close Similarly, the Fourth Circuit recently held in United Statesv. Robinson 58Open this footnote Close this footnote 58 846 F.3d 694 (4th Cir. 2017) (en banc). Open this footnote Close that in concealed-carry jurisdictions, once an officer has legally stopped a person, the officer can frisk him if he is armed. 59Open this footnote Close this footnote 59 Id. at 701. Open this footnote Close But in tension with those holdings, the Sixth, Fourth, and Third Circuits have held that where state law allows open carry of firearms, the police cannot conduct a Terry stop simply because a person visibly carries a gun. 60Open this footnote Close this footnote 60 See Northrupv. City of Toledo Police Dept, 785 F.3d 1128, 1131-33 (6th Cir. 2015); United States v. Black, 707 F.3d 531, 540 (4th Cir. 2013); United Statesv. Ubiles, 224 F.3d 213, 218 (3d Cir. 2000). Open this footnote Close

The Court is likely to confront this growing tension in the coming years. The Robinson dissent urged the court to adopt a rule that officers cannot conduct frisks of armed individuals without evidence that they are not only armed but also dangerous. 61Open this footnote Close this footnote 61 See Robinson, 846 F.3d at 707, 709 (Harris, J., dissenting). Open this footnote Close But as he did in Rodriguez, Judge Gorsuch would likely uphold the legality of the frisk in Robinson. In Rodriguez, the Tenth Circuit reasoned that an officer making a lawful investigatory stop [must have] the ability to protect himself from an armed suspect whose propensities are unknown. 62Open this footnote Close this footnote 62 Rodriguez, 739 F.3d at 491. Open this footnote Close Instead of the dissents rule, Judge Gorsuch is likely to favor an approach that prioritizes officer safety by considering the totality of the circumstances and tak[ing] a realistic view of human capacities and limitations, as he did in Nicholson. 63Open this footnote Close this footnote 63 United States v. Nicholson, 721 F.3d 1236, 1248 (10th Cir. 2013) (Gorsuch, J., dissenting). Open this footnote Close

Conclusion

It is too simple, then, to say that Judge Gorsuch is an originalist or that he will merely preserve Justice Scalias common law approach to the Fourth Amendment. True, Judge Gorsuch has adopted Justice Scalias bright-line trespass test for searches of personal property. But while Justice Scalia never conclusively resolved whether stop and frisks would have been permitted at common law, 64Open this footnote Close this footnote 64 See Minnesotav. Dickerson, 508 U.S. 366, 380 (1993) (Scalia, J., concurring). Open this footnote Close he was always frank regarding his preference for bright-line rules over thol totality-of-the-circumstances. 65Open this footnote Close this footnote 65 See United States v. Mead Corp., 533 U.S. 218, 241 (2001) (Scalia, J., dissenting); see also Justice Antonin Scalia, The Rule of Law as a Law of Rules, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Lecture at Harvard University (Feb. 14, 1989), in 56 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1175, 1186 (1989). Open this footnote Close Conversely, Judge Gorsuch seems not just to tolerate but to prefer case-by-case reasonableness inquiries when it comes to stop and frisks. 66Open this footnote Close this footnote 66 See United Statesv. Nicholson, 721 F.3d 1236, 1248-49 (2013) (Gorsuch, J., dissenting) (arguing for a case-by-case approach that considers the totality of the circumstances and takes a realistic view of human capacities and limitations). Open this footnote Close So although Judge Gorsuch could, if confirmed, posit an originalist answer to Terry and thereby develop a unified originalist approach to the Fourth Amendment, there is nothing in his record to indicate that such a project interests him.

* Sophie J. Hart, J.D. Candidate, Stanford Law School, 2017. Dennis M. Martin, J.D. Candidate, Stanford Law School, 2018.

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Judge Gorsuch and the Fourth Amendment - Stanford Law Review Online