District of Columbia v. Little

• Decision Date: 01 August 1949
• Docket Number: No. 10092.,10092.
• Citation: 178 F.2d 13
• Parties: DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. LITTLE.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

178 F.2d 13 (1949)

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. LITTLE.

No. 10092.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued June 10, 1949.

Decided August 1, 1949.

Writ of Certiorari Granted November 7, 1949.

Judgment Affirmed February 20, 1950.

Mr. Chester H. Gray, Principal Assistant Corporation Counsel, D. C., Washington, D. C., with whom Mr. Vernon E. West, Corporation Counsel, D. C., and Mr. Edward A. Beard, Assistant Corporation Counsel, D. C., Washington, D. C., were on the brief, for appellant.

Mr. Jeff Busby, Washington, D. C., with whom Mr. Jeff Busby, Jr., Washington, D. C., was on the brief, for appellee.

Before PRETTYMAN and PROCTOR, Circuit Judges, and ALEXANDER HOLTZOFF, District Judge, sitting by designation.

Writ of Certiorari Granted November 7, 1949. See 70 S.Ct. 141.

Judgment Affirmed February 20, 1950. See 70 S.Ct. 468.

PRETTYMAN, Circuit Judge.

Appellee Little was convicted in the Municipal Court for the District of Columbia upon an information which charged that on certain premises on a certain day she hindered, obstructed and interfered with an inspector of the Health Department in the performance of his duty. She appealed, and the Municipal Court of Appeals, in a unanimous opinion written by Associate Judge Clagett, reversed.¹ Because of the importance of the question to the enforcement of the health laws, we granted an appeal.

Appellee refused to unlock the front door of her home at the command of a Health Department inspector who was without a warrant. The question is whether she was within her constitutional rights in doing so, or whether she thereby illegally hindered him in the performance of his duty.

The inspector testified that he was ordered by the Health Officer to make an inspection of the premises after a complaint had been made "that there was an accumulation of loose and uncovered garbage and trash in the halls of said premises and that certain of the persons residing therein had failed to avail themselves of the toilet facilities".² It is not disputed that the premises is a private residence, the home of the appellee; that the inspector had no warrant either of arrest or search; that the appellee refused to unlock the front door, and that she was thereupon arrested.

The District of Columbia says that the Health Officer is fully empowered by valid statutes to enforce the public health laws; that the Commissioners are likewise duly empowered to make all regulations necessary to protect the public health; that the regulations require owners and occupants of premises to maintain them in a clean and wholesome condition,³ and that the same regulations authorize inspections and denominate as a misdemeanor interference with an inspection.

In respect of the Fourth Amendment, the District says that the attempted inspection was premised upon a complaint, which, if true, constituted probable cause to believe that a violation of law existed in the dwelling, and that the attempt was at a reasonable time of day by a uniformed officer who stated the purpose of his visit. It says that the view "expressed by the Municipal Court of Appeals is not consonant with the scope of the police power as indicated by the decisions of Courts controlling in this jurisdiction" and, further, that "it has been the view of the Congress, as shown by its statutory enactments limiting the right of inspection without warrant in certain specified activities under the police power, that it may unqualifiedly extend the right of inspection without warrant in such circumstances as it may deem necessary, so long as the police power is reasonably exercised." It also says that "Practical application of this holding of the Municipal Court of Appeals to the problems of enforcement of health laws in a large city would result in chaos. The whole purpose of the use of the police power by the health authorities is to prevent the creation of present and immediate dangers, to correct deficiencies before they become nuisances per se and before the public is endangered. While every authority recognizes the necessity for inspection, the effect of the Municipal Court of Appeals' opinion is to prevent it; for, if the danger is immediate and the nuisance apparent, the sovereign may protect the public by civil proceedings to abate it and by criminal prosecution of the guilty party — the necessity for inspection no longer exists."

The position of the District is summarized by it as follows: "In the view of appellant a more salutary rationale insuring effective protection of the health and safety of the public, and at the same time cognizant of the personal rights of the individual under the Fourth Amendment, would be a holding that an inspection of a private dwelling in aid of the police power as it relates to matters of health is valid even though without warrant, provided there is probable cause to believe that there exists within the dwelling a violation of law or regulation designed to protect the health, safety or welfare of the public and provided the inspection is attempted under circumstances and conditions of fact which are not unreasonable."

As a separate consideration, the District also presents an argument based upon some conflict in the testimony as to whether appellee was arrested for hindering the health officer by refusing to unlock the door on the premises or was arrested for interfering with a police officer in the arrest of another person at a police call box some distance down the street. That argument has no bearing upon the case, because the information upon which appellee was convicted charged her with interfering with the health inspector, not the policeman, upon the premises, not upon the public street, and with hindering the performance of duty by the health inspector, not with interfering with a police officer in the performance of an arrest.

We must delimit the question before us. Many of the problems discussed in the District's brief are not in the case. The simple question is: Can a health officer of the District of Columbia inspect a private home without a warrant if the owner or occupant objects?

The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution applies.⁴ The Supreme Court has several times in recent cases exhaustively and emphatically discussed the invasion of private dwellings by government officers.⁵ If there ever was any doubt upon the matter, it has surely now been laid to rest. The several opinions in those cases contain complete historical studies, relating to both federal and state governments, and many unequivocal declarations, quotable and unmistakable. We need not attempt to reproduce them here.

Democratic government has distinguishing features. One of them is freedom of speech for the individual; another is freedom of religion. Another is the right of privacy of a home from intrusion by government officials. These characteristics are not mere hallmarks. They are the beams and pillars about which the structure was built and upon which it depends. If private homes are opened to the intrusion of government enforcement officials, at the wish of those officials, without the intervening mind and hand of a magistrate, one prop of the structure of our system is gone and an outstanding characteristic of another form of government will have been substituted.

When the Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches, it, of course, by implication, permits reasonable searches. But reasonableness without a warrant is adjudged solely by the extremity of the circumstances of the moment and not by any general characteristic of the officer or his mission. If an officer is pursuing a felon who runs into a house and hides, the officer may follow and arrest him. But this is because under the exigencies of circumstance the law of pursuit supersedes the rule as to search. There is no doctrine that search for garbage is reasonable while search for arms, stolen goods or gambling equipment is not. Moreover, except for the most urgent of necessities, the question of reasonableness is for a magistrate and not for the enforcement officer.⁶

It is said to us that the regulations sought to be enforced by this search only incidentally involved criminal charges, that their purpose is to protect the public health. It is argued that the Fourth Amendment provision regarding searches is premised upon and limited by the Fifth Amendment provision regarding self-incrimination. It is said to us that therefore there is no prohibition against searches of private homes by government officers, unless they are searching for evidence of crime; that if they are searching for evidence of crime, they must get a search warrant, but that if they are searching for something else or are just searching, they need not get a search warrant; for searchers of the latter sort, we are told, home owners must open their front doors upon demand of an officer without a warrant. The argument is wholly without merit, preposterous in fact. The basic premise of the prohibition against searches was not protection against self-incrimination; it was the common-law right of a man to privacy in his home, a right which is one of the indispensable ultimate essentials of our concept of civilization. It was firmly established in the common law as one of the bright features of the Anglo-Saxon contributions to human progress. It was not related to crime or to suspicion of crime. It belonged to all men, not merely to criminals, real or suspected. So much is clear from any examination of history, whether slight or exhaustive. The argument made to us has not the slightest basis in history. It has no grater justification in reason. To say that a man suspected of crime has a right to protection against search of his home without a warrant, but that a man not suspected of crime has no such protection, is a fantastic absurdity.

The argument involves a basic error in reasoning in respect to the Constitution's Bill of Rights. The Fourth Amendment did not...