Fourth Amendment, Georgia v. Randolph

[A18]

Georgia v. Randolph, 547 U.S. ___ (2006)

Respondent's estranged wife gave police permission to search the marital residence for items of drug use after respondent, who was also present, had unequivocally refused to give consent. Respondent was indicted for possession of cocaine, and the trial court denied his motion to suppress the evidence as products of a warrantless search unauthorized by consent. The Georgia Court of Appeals reversed. In affirming, the State Supreme Court held that consent given by one occupant is not valid in the face of the refusal of another physically present occupant, and distinguished United States v. Matlock, which recognized the permissibility of an entry made with the consent of one co-occupant in the other's absence.

Held: In the circumstances here at issue, a physically present co-occupant's stated refusal to permit entry renders warrantless entry and search unreasonable and invalid as to him.

Souter, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Stevens, Kennedy, Ginsburg, and Breyer, JJ., joined. Stevens, J., and Breyer, J., filed concurring opinions. Roberts, C. J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Scalia, J., joined. Scalia, J., and Thomas, J., filed dissenting opinions. Alito, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I would have reached the same decision, but on narrower grounds.  The straw with the powdery residue that was at the crux of the chain of evidence that led to Randolph's arrest was in what was by the wife's own admission to the officer at the time, the husband's bedroom, not their bedroom.  Even if the wife be able to grant permission to search areas used in common while the husband is denying that permission, a bedroom slept in by the husband and not the wife is clearly an area in which the husband's expectation of privacy is stronger than the wife's ability to abrogate it.

[Emsworth]

Unsound. According to the common law of property, each cotenant is entitled to allow a guest into the house, even if the other cotenant objects. The same principle should apply when a cotenant wishes to allow a policeman onto the property.