Ohio v. Robinette

• Decision Date: 18 November 1996
• Docket Number: 95891
• Parties: OHIO, Petitioner, v. Robert D. ROBINETTE
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

519 U.S. 33

117 S.Ct. 417

136 L.Ed.2d 347

OHIO, Petitioner,

v Robert D. ROBINETTE.

No. 95-891.

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued Oct. 8, 1996.

Decided Nov. 18, 1996.

Syllabus ^*

After an Ohio deputy sheriff stopped respondent Robinette for speeding, gave him a verbal warning, and returned his driver's license, the deputy asked whether he was carrying illegal contraband, weapons, or drugs in his car. Robinette answered ''no'' and consented to a search of the car, which revealed a small amount of marijuana and a pill. He was arrested and later charged with knowing possession of a controlled substance when the pill turned out to be methylenedioxy-methamphetamine. Following denial of his pretrial suppression motion, he was found guilty, but the Ohio Court of Appeals reversed on the ground that the search resulted from an unlawful detention. The State Supreme Court affirmed, establishing as a bright-line prerequisite for consensual interrogation under these circumstances the requirement that an officer clearly state when a citizen validly detained for a traffic offense is ''legally free to go.''

Held:

1. This Court has jurisdiction to review the Ohio Supreme Court's decision. The contention that jurisdiction is lacking because the Ohio decision rested in part upon the State Constitution is rejected under Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032, 1040-1041, 103 S.Ct. 3469, 3476-3477, 77 L.Ed.2d 1201. Although the opinion below mentions the Ohio Constitution in passing, it clearly relies on federal law, discussing and citing federal cases almost exclusively. It is not dispositive that those citations appear only in the opinion and not in the official syllabus. Under Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co., 433 U.S. 562, 566, 97 S.Ct. 2849, 2852-2853, 53 L.Ed.2d 965 , it is permissible to turn to an Ohio opinion's body when the syllabus speaks only in general terms of ''the federal and Ohio Constitutions.'' Nor is the Court's jurisdiction defeated by the additional holding below that continuing detention of a person stopped for a traffic violation constitutes an illegal seizure when the officer's motivation for continuing is not related to the purpose of the original, constitutional stop and there are no articulable facts giving rise to a suspicion of some separate illegal activity. Under Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. ----, ----, 116 S.Ct. 1769, ----, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 the officer's subjective intentions do not make continued detention illegal, so long as the detention is justified by the circumstances, viewed objectively. Pp. ___-___.

2. The Fourth Amendment does not require that a lawfully seized defendant be advised that he is ''free to go'' before his consent to search will be recognized as voluntary. The Amendment's touchstone is reasonableness, which is measured in objective terms by examining the totality of the circumstances. In applying this test, the Court has consistently eschewed bright-line rules, instead emphasizing the fact-specific nature of the reasonableness inquiry. Indeed, in rejecting a per se rule very similar to one adopted below, this Court has held that the voluntariness of a consent to search is a question of fact to be determined from all the circumstances. Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 248-249, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 2058-2059, 36 L.Ed.2d 854. The Ohio Supreme Court erred in holding otherwise. It would be unrealistic to require the police to always inform detainees that they are free to go before a consent to search may be deemed voluntary. Cf. id., at 231, 93 S.Ct., at 2049-2050. P. ___.

73 Ohio St.3d 650, 653 N.E.2d 695, reversed.

REHNQUIST, C.J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which O'CONNOR, SCALIA, KENNEDY, SOUTER, THOMAS, and BREYER, JJ., joined. GINSBURG, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment. STEVENS, J., filed a dissenting opinion.

Carley J. Ingram, Dayton, OH, for petitioner.

Irving L. Gornstein, Washington, DC, for U.S. as amicus curiae, by special leave of the Court.

James D. Ruppert, Franklin, OH, for respondent.

Chief Justice REHNQUIST delivered the opinion of the Court.

We are here presented with the question whether the Fourth Amendment requires that a lawfully seized defendant must be advised that he is ''free to go'' before his consent to search will be recognized as voluntary. We hold that it does not.

This case arose on a stretch of Interstate 70 north of Dayton, Ohio, where the posted speed limit was 45 miles per hour because of construction. Respondent Robert D. Robinette was clocked at 69 miles per hour as he drove his car along this stretch of road, and was stopped by Deputy Roger Newsome of the Montgomery County Sheriff's office. Newsome asked for and was handed Robinette's driver's license, and he ran a computer check which indicated that Robinette had no previous violations. Newsome then asked Robinette to step out of his car, turned on his mounted video camera, issued a verbal warning to Robinette, and returned his license.

At this point, Newsome asked, ''One question before you get gone: [A]re you carrying any illegal contraband in your car? Any weapons of any kind, drugs, anything like that?'' App. to Brief for Respondent 2 (internal quotation marks omitted). Robinette answered ''no'' to these questions, after which Deputy Newsome asked if he could search the car. Robinette consented. In the car, Deputy Newsome discovered a small amount of marijuana and, in a film container, a pill which was later determined to be methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). Robinette was then arrested and charged with knowing possession of a controlled substance, MDMA, in violation of Ohio Rev.Code Ann. § 2925.11(A) (1993).

Before trial, Robinette unsuccessfully sought to suppress this evidence. He then pleaded ''no contest,'' a nd was found guilty. On appeal, the Ohio Court of Appeals reversed, ruling that the search resulted from an unlawful detention. The Supreme Court of Ohio, by a divided vote, affirmed. 73 Ohio St.3d 650, 653 N.E.2d 695 (1995). In its opinion, that court established a bright-line prerequisite for consensual interrogation under these circumstances:

''The right, guaranteed by the federal and Ohio Constitutions, to be secure in one's person and property requires that citizens stopped for traffic offenses be clearly informed by the detaining officer when they are free to go after a valid detention, before an officer attempts to engage in a consensual interrogation. Any attempt at consensual interrogation must be preceded by the phrase 'At this time you legally are free to go' or by words of similar import.'' Id., at 650-651, 653 N.E.2d, at 696.

We granted certiorari, 516 U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 1040, 134 L.Ed.2d 187 (1996), to review this per se rule, and we now reverse.

We must first consider whether we have jurisdiction to review the Ohio Supreme Court's decision. Respondent contends that we lack such jurisdiction because the Ohio decision rested upon the Ohio Constitution, in addition to the Federal Constitution. Under Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032, 103 S.Ct. 3469, 77 L.Ed.2d 1201 (1983), when ''a state court decision fairly appears to rest primarily on federal law, or to be interwoven with the federal law, and when the adequacy and independence of any possible state law ground is not clear from the face of the opinion, we will accept as the most reasonable explanation that the state court decided the case the way it did because it believed that federal law required it to do so.'' ^* Id., at 1040-1041, 103 S.Ct., at 3472. Although the opinion below mentions Article I, Section 14 of the Ohio Constitution in passing (a section which reads identically to the Fourth Amendment), the opinion clearly relies on federal law nevertheless. Indeed, the only cases it discusses or even cites are federal cases, except for one state case which itself applies the Federal Constitution.

Our jurisdiction is not defeated by the fact that these citations appear in the body of the opinion, while, under Ohio law, ''the Supreme Court speaks as a court only through the syllabi of its cases.'' See Ohio v. Gallagher, 425 U.S. 257, 259, 96 S.Ct. 1438, 1439, 47 L.Ed.2d 722 (1976). When the syllabus, as here, speaks only in general terms of ''the federal and Ohio Constitutions,'' it is permissible for us to turn to the body of the opinion to discern the grounds for decision. Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co., 433 U.S. 562, 566, 97 S.Ct. 2849, 2852-2853, 53 L.Ed.2d 965 (1977).

Respondent Robinette also contends that we may not reach the question presented in the petition because the Supreme Court of Ohio also held, as set out in the syllabus (1):

''When the motivation behind a police officer's continued detention of a person stopped for a traffic violation is not related to the purpose of the original, constitutional stop, and when that continued detention is not based on articulable facts giving rise to a suspicion of some separate illegal activity justifying an extension of the detention, the continued detention constitutes an illegal seizure.'' 73 Ohio St.3d, at 650, 653 N.E.2d, at 696.

In reliance on this ground, the Supreme Court of Ohio held that when Newsome returned to Robinette's car and asked him to get out of the car, after he had determined in his own mind not to give Robinette a ticket, the detention then became unlawful.

Respondent failed to make any such argument in his brief in opposition to certiorari. See this Court's Rule 15.2. We be lieve the issue as to the continuing legality of the detention is a ''predicate to an intelligent resolution'' of the question presented, and therefore ''fairly included therein.'' This Court's Rule 14.1(a); Vance v. Terrazas, 444 U.S. 252, 258-259, n. 5, 100 S.Ct. 540, 544-545, n. 5, 62 L.Ed.2d 461 (1980). The parties have briefed this issue, and we proceed to decide it.

We think that under our recent decision in Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1...