Bell v. City of Chicago, No. 15-2833 (7th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this Case
Justia Opinion Summary
Want to stay in the know about new opinions from the Seventh Circuit US Court of Appeals?
Sign up for free summaries delivered directly to your inbox. Learn More ›
You already receive new opinion summaries from Seventh Circuit US Court of Appeals. Did you know we offer summary newsletters for even more practice areas and jurisdictions? Explore them here.
Chicago Police officers arrested Bell for possession of a controlled substance while he was driving Spinks’s vehicle. They impounded the vehicle after Bell’s arrest. Chicago Municipal Code 7‐24‐225 permits police to impound a vehicle when officers have probable cause to believe it contained a controlled substance or was used in an illegal drug transaction. Spinks challenged the impoundment in the Chicago Department of Administrative Hearings. The ALJ determined that probable cause existed to impound the vehicle. A month later, an ALJ found Spinks liable for violating the Code and ordered that she pay the prescribed penalty of $2,000 plus $180 in storage and towing fees. Spinks and Bell filed suit, alleging that the ordinances were facially invalid under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The district court dismissed. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting arguments that the Code permits warrantless seizure of vehicles in all instances and allows for a non‐judicial officer to determine whether probable cause exists to allow the vehicle to remain seized. Under the Code, the officer seizing the vehicle without a warrant must have probable cause to believe it contains illegal drugs or has been used in an illegal drug transaction. The court noted that plaintiffs did not employ post-seizure state law remedies.
Download PDF
In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 15 2833 DAWAIN BELL and ALICE SPINKS, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs Appellants, v. CITY OF CHICAGO, Defendant Appellee. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 14 C 7382 — Gary Feinerman, Judge. ____________________ ARGUED FEBRUARY 11, 2016 — DECIDED AUGUST 30, 2016 ____________________ Before RIPPLE, KANNE, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges. KANNE, Circuit Judge. In September 2012, Chicago Police Department officers arrested Plaintiff Dawain Bell for posses sion of a controlled substance. At the time, Bell was driving Plaintiff Alice Spinks’s vehicle. Chicago Police impounded the vehicle after Bell’s arrest pursuant to Chicago Municipal Code § 7 24 225, which permits police to impound a vehicle when 2 No. 15 2833 officers have probable cause to believe it contained a con trolled substance or was used in an illegal drug transaction. Spinks challenged the impoundment two days later at a hearing before an administrative law judge (“ALJ”) in the City of Chicago’s Department of Administrative Hearings. The ALJ determined that probable cause existed to impound the vehicle because at the time of impoundment it contained “un lawful drugs” in violation of § 7 24 225. Less than a month later, an ALJ found Spinks liable for violating § 7 24 225 and ordered that she pay the prescribed penalty of $2,000 plus $180 in storage and towing fees.1 There is no evidence that Spinks challenged the ALJ’s determination in Cook County Circuit Court, which she had the right to do. Spinks and Bell (“Plaintiffs”) filed this lawsuit against De fendant City of Chicago (“City”) in Cook County Circuit Court in 2014, alleging, amongst other theories, that the City’s impoundment related ordinances violated Illinois law and were facially invalid under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The City removed the action to federal court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1441 based on Plaintiffs’ allegations that the impoundment ordinance violated the Fourth Amend ment. The City then moved to dismiss the complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim. After allowing Plaintiffs to amend their complaint, the district court deemed the City’s previously filed motion to dis miss applied to the amended complaint and granted the mo tion. In doing so, the district court only dismissed Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment claim with prejudice and remanded 1 Bell was later convicted in Cook County Circuit Court for possession of cocaine and received a sentence of 18 months’ probation. No. 15 2833 3 Plaintiffs’ remaining state law claims to state court. This ap peal followed. I. ANALYSIS We review de novo a district court’s decision to dismiss a complaint for failure to state a claim pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6). Vesely v. Armslist LLC, 762 F.3d 661, 664 (7th Cir. 2014). In eval uating a complaint’s sufficiency, “we construe it in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, accept well pleaded facts as true, and draw all inferences in [the party’s] favor.” Reynolds v. CB Sports Bar, Inc., 623 F.3d 1143, 1146 (7th Cir. 2010). While a plaintiff need not plead “detailed factual alle gations” to survive a motion to dismiss, she still must provide more than mere “labels and conclusions or a formulaic recita tion of the elements of a cause of action” for her complaint to be considered adequate under Federal Rule of Civil Proce dure 8. Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (internal quo tation marks omitted). Plaintiffs’ two principal arguments are that the City’s im poundment related ordinances (“Ordinances”) are facially in valid under the Fourth Amendment because the Ordinances: (1) permit warrantless seizure of vehicles in all instances and (2) allow for a non judicial officer—a City ALJ—to determine whether probable cause exists to allow the vehicle to remain seized. Plaintiffs’ remaining arguments are frivolous and do not warrant further discussion. There is no categorical bar to mounting a facial challenge under the Fourth Amendment, City of Los Angeles v. Patel, 135 S. Ct. 2443, 2449 (2015), but, in doing so, Plaintiffs assume a demanding burden—“establish[ing] that a ‘law is unconstitu tional in all of its applications,’” id. at 2451 (quoting Wash. 4 No. 15 2833 State Grange v. Wash. State Republican Party, 552 U.S. 442, 449 (2008)). Although “such challenges are the most difficult ... to mount successfully,” the Supreme Court has recently clarified that the proper inquiry under this “exacting standard” should be “only [on] applications of the statute in which it actually authorizes or prohibits conduct.” Id. at 2449, 2451 (internal quotation marks omitted). A. Warrantless Seizure of Vehicles The Fourth Amendment provides, in relevant part, for “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable … seizures ….”2 (em phasis added). The Supreme Court has explained that “[a] ‘seizure’ of property occurs when there is some meaningful interference with an individual’s possessory interests in that property” caused by a government actor. United States v. Ja cobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 113 (1984). In evaluating such a challenge, we must determine whether the “seizure” of property was “unreasonable,” a determination that requires a “balancing of governmental and private interests.” New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 341 (1985). Generally, “seizures of personal property are unreasonable within the meaning of the Fourth Amend ment, without more, unless … accomplished pursuant to a ju dicial warrant.” Illinois v. McArthur, 531 U.S. 326, 330 (2001) (alteration in original and internal quotation marks omitted). But because “reasonableness is still the ultimate standard un der the Fourth Amendment,” Soldal v. Cook Cty., Ill., 506 U.S. 2 Like several other amendments, the Fourth Amendment has been made applicable to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment. Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 30–31 (1963). No. 15 2833 5 56, 71 (1992) (internal quotation marks omitted), there are ex ceptions that allow for warrantless seizures, see McArthur, 531 U.S. at 330–31. Plaintiffs argue that the City’s Ordinances—§§ 2 14 101 (Seized/unclaimed property), 2 14 132 (Impoundment), and 2 14 135 (Impoundment—Towing and storage fee hearing)— are facially invalid under the Fourth Amendment because the Ordinances allow for warrantless seizures of vehicles in all cases. Because Plaintiffs have mounted a facial challenge, “the proper focus of the constitutional inquiry is [seizures] that the law actually authorizes, not those for which it is irrelevant.” Patel, 135 S. Ct. at 2451. Under this demanding standard, Plaintiffs must demonstrate that the Ordinances are unconsti tutional in all the seizures that the Ordinances “actually au thorize[].” Id. Stated differently, Plaintiffs must show the Or dinances’ “actual applications” are unconstitutional. Id. We need not proceed very far in our inquiry, however, to deter mine that Plaintiffs’ facial challenge fails, as the Ordinances’ “actual application[]” in their case does not violate the Fourth Amendment. Section 2 14 132 is the general provision that allows a po lice officer or authorized City agent to impound a vehicle in volved in a “status related offense” and a “use related of fense.” A “status related offense” is an offense related to a vi olation of a registration related ordinance whereas a “use re lated offense” is one where the vehicle is used in an illegal manner or in connection with an illegal act, such as possession of illegal drugs in a vehicle, drag racing, or solicitation of a prostitute. Regardless of the type of substantive offense, the Ordinances require that the officer or authorized City agent have probable cause to believe that an enumerated ordinance 6 No. 15 2833 violation has occurred before the vehicle can be seized and impounded. 3 One such enumerated violation, incorporated by reference into § 2 14 132, is Chicago Municipal Code § 7 24 225, which is the provision used by police to seize and impound Spinks’s vehicle. This “use related offense” provision states in relevant part that “[w]henever a police officer has probable cause to be lieve that a vehicle is subject to seizure and impoundment pursuant to this section, the police officer shall provide for the towing of the vehicle to a facility controlled by the city or its agent.” § 7 24 225(b) (emphasis added). Vehicles are only “subject to seizure and impoundment” under § 7 24 225 if the vehicle “contains any controlled substance or cannabis” or “is used in the purchase, attempt to purchase, sale or attempt to sell such controlled substances or cannabis.” Under this pro vision then, the officer seizing the vehicle without a warrant must have probable cause to believe it has illegal drugs in it or has been used in an illegal drug transaction. We can divine no difference between the warrantless sei zures authorized by § 7 24 225 and those permitted by the Su preme Court in Florida v. White, 526 U.S. 559 (1999) and in G.M. Leasing Corp. v. United States, 429 U.S. 338 (1977), as well as in our decision in United States v. Pace, 898 F.2d 1218 (7th Cir. 1990). In White, the Supreme Court held a police officer 3 There are two authorizations for impoundment that do not explicitly in corporate the requirement that a police officer have probable cause to sus pect a violation before seizure. See Chicago Mun. Code §§ 9 12 090, 9 92 035. Those sections, however, provide for impoundment of a vehicle in volved in drag racing, § 9 12 090, or whose driver fled from a police officer and could not be apprehended at the time of flight and is inapplicable to Plaintiffs’ case, § 9 92 035. No. 15 2833 7 did not need a warrant to seize a vehicle for possible forfeiture when the officer had probable cause to believe the vehicle it self was contraband, which, under Florida law, meant that the vehicle had been used in connection with an illegal drug of fense. The Supreme Court expressly rejected an argument similar to Plaintiffs’, namely that there is some difference “be tween permitting the immediate search of a movable automo bile based on actual knowledge that it then contains contra band [and] the discretionary seizure of a citizen’s automobile based upon a belief that it may have been used at some time in the past to assist in illegal activity.” White, 526 U.S. at 564 (alteration in original and internal quotation marks omitted). In G.M. Leasing, the Supreme Court held that Internal Rev enue Service agents could seize a vehicle without a warrant if they had probable cause to believe the vehicle was subject to seizure and the seizure occurred “on public streets, parking lots, or other open places.” 429 U.S. at 351–52. Similarly, in Pace, after we determined that an Illinois forfeiture statute permitted warrantless seizures of vehicles, we joined several other circuits in holding that under the Fourth Amendment, police “may seize a car without a warrant pursuant to a for feiture statute if they have probable cause to believe that the car is subject to forfeiture.” Pace, 898 F.2d at 1218. There, the Illinois forfeiture statute was remarkably similar to § 7 24 225 in that it permitted police to seize a vehicle if police had prob able cause to believe the vehicle had been used in connection with or facilitated illegal drug activity. Taken together, we read these three opinions as permitting the type of warrantless seizures authorized by § 7 24 225, the ordinance used to seize Spinks’s vehicle. In other words, these 8 No. 15 2833 three opinions when read together find that an ordinance au thorizing a warrantless seizure is not “unreasonable” under the Fourth Amendment when a police officer has probable cause to believe that a vehicle is subject to seizure because it was used in some violation of law, here for having illegal drugs in it. Plaintiffs attempt to circumvent White and G.M. Leasing by arguing that even if those cases authorize the seizure in their case, the City’s Ordinances authorize impoundment for a va riety of other ordinance violations. True. But in making a fa cial challenge, Plaintiffs must demonstrate that a particular law is unconstitutional in all its actual applications, including its application to them. Plaintiffs make no real effort to do so, other than arguing that the law at issue in White was a forfei ture statute, not an impoundment ordinance. That fact is a distinction without a difference. The fact that the statute at is sue in White was called a forfeiture statute does not change that the Supreme Court deemed constitutional the warrant less seizure of a vehicle supported by probable cause to be lieve that the vehicle was used in a violation of the law. Plaintiffs also read Patel as standing for the proposition that a law that permits warrantless seizures in all instances is facially unconstitutional. Patel does not stand for such a prop osition. It was not a seismic shift in Fourth Amendment juris prudence that wiped away the exceptions to the warrant re quirement created by White, G.M. Leasing, and those cases’ progeny. Rather, Patel considered whether a municipal ordi nance allowing for searches of hotel registries without a war rant violated the Fourth Amendment. The ordinance at issue there, unlike the ordinance at issue in our case, allowed the search to occur without probable cause. That is why the Court No. 15 2833 9 evaluated whether the ordinance was permitted under the “administrative search exception to the warrant requirement” and determined it did not. Patel, 135 S. Ct. at 2452. Patel did not, however, call into question the constitutionality of the City’s Ordinances or similar forfeiture statutes, which only al low for seizure of a vehicle after the officer or state actor de veloped probable cause of a violation of the law. B. Post Seizure Procedures Plaintiffs argue the post seizure procedures provided by the City’s Ordinances facially violate the Fourth Amendment because the Ordinances fail to provide a neutral officer from the judicial branch to determine whether probable cause ex ists to continue possessing the vehicle after it is seized. There is a fundamental flaw with Plaintiffs’ argument though. Plaintiffs cannot explain how their challenge to the post seizure procedure process implicates the Fourth Amend ment, as the seizure in Plaintiffs’ case and all others under the Ordinances is complete when the officer or agent seizes and impounds the vehicle. Lee v. City of Chicago, 330 F.3d 456, 466 (7th Cir. 2003). As we explained in Lee, “[o]nce an individual has been meaningfully dispossessed, the seizure of the prop erty is complete, and once justified by probable cause, that seizure is reasonable. The amendment then cannot be invoked by the dispossessed owner to regain his property. Therefore, [the plaintiff’s] car was seized when it was impounded.” Id. Here, Plaintiffs’ complaint is with the individual and the process for reviewing whether the police or City agent had suf ficient probable cause to initially seize the vehicle. Their com plaint is that this reviewing individual is: (1) not a judicial of 10 No. 15 2833 ficer and (2) cannot be unbiased in reviewing whether the po lice officer or City agent had probable cause in the first in stance to seize the vehicle. In other words, they challenge the procedures allowing for the City’s continued possession of a vehicle, not the initial seizure of the vehicle. Plaintiffs are not without a remedy, however, as the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment can be used to challenge post seizure procedures and the City’s continued retention of Spinks’s vehicle. See United States v. James Daniel Good Real Prop., 510 U.S. 43, 52 (1993) (holding that the gov ernment’s continued retention of property after seizure must comply with the Due Process Clause); Towers v. City of Chicago, 173 F.3d 619, 626–29 (7th Cir. 2009) (evaluating a substantive and procedural due process challenge to same use related or dinance used to impound Spinks’s vehicle). Despite the availability of this challenge, Plaintiffs have made the conscious decision not to pursue a substantive or procedural due process challenge. Indeed, Plaintiffs have as serted that “[t]o suggest that these Plaintiffs should have at tacked this Fourth Amendment defect on due process grounds is absurd.” (Appellant Br. 13.) Color us absurd then, but such a clear statement amounts to a waiver of any due process argument on appeal. Hojnacki v. Klein Acosta, 285 F.3d 544, 549 (7th Cir. 2002) (“A party waives any argument that it does not raise before the district court or, if raised in the dis trict court, it fails to develop on appeal.”). II. CONCLUSION For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
