Warrantless Search of Toolbox Approved as Administrative Search of Junkyard
In a decision with layers of Fourth Amendment issues, the Tenth Circuit approved the warrantless search of a toolbox at a work station when police were on the premises of a junkyard conducting a search pursuant to a state “chop shop” statute. United States v. Johnson, No. 04-6303 (June 1, 2005). Law enforcement discovered a handgun in the toolbox and charged the defendant with possession of a handgun by a felon. The district court suppressed the evidence, concluding that the search advanced a criminal investigation and was not an administrative search. The Tenth Circuit reversed finding that the motive for the search was unimportant under Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 813 (1996).
Despite the Court's reliance on Whren, this case does not stand for the proposition that law enforcement may conduct a search in furtherance of a criminal investigation whenever a business is subject to administrative searches pursuant to state law.
The Tenth Circuit cited New York v. Burger, 482 U.S. 691, 707 (1987), for a three-part test in examining whether a warrantless inspection of a closely regulated industry violates the Fourth Amendment:
First, there must be a substantial government interest that informs the regulatory scheme pursuant to which the inspection is made. Second, the warrantless inspections must be necessary to further the regulatory scheme. . . . Finally, the statute's inspection program, in terms of the certainty and regularity of its application, must provide a constitutionally adequate substitute for a warrant.
In a strange twist, the Tenth Circuit held that a search in furtherance of a criminal investigation is acceptable if the police possess merely a suspicion of criminal activity. The presence of probable cause to believe criminal activity would be found in the search violates the Fourth Amendment as law enforcement would be required to request a search warrant.
The most egregious aspect of this opinion, however, is the fiction that the search of the toolbox was reasonably related to an administrative search. The statute permitted "officers to examine "vehicles," vehicle "parts," and vehicle "parts . . . stored" at the salvage yard." The Tenth CIrcuit, then termed VIN plates as "parts". In searching the toolbox, law enforcement officers were looking for "parts" because they were looking for VIN plates.
When I go to my local NAPA store, I don't see VIN plates for sale. Mr. Johnson got a raw deal and our freedoms took a hit.