USA V. XZAVIONE TAYLOR, No. 21-10377 (9th Cir. 2023)
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Police stopped Defendant for a traffic violation, which led to the discovery of a firearm that Defendant, a convicted felon, could not lawfully possess.
The Ninth Circuit held that the officers did not unreasonably prolong the stop and that Defendant voluntarily consented to the search of his car. The court, therefore, affirmed the district court’s denial of Defendant’s motion to suppress. But, on one aspect of Defendant’s supervised release, the court remanded for the district court to conform its written judgment to the court’s oral pronouncement of Defendant’s sentence.
The court wrote that an officer’s asking Defendant two questions about weapons early in the counter—once before the officer learned that Defendant was on federal supervision for being a felon in possession and once after—was a negligibly burdensome precaution that the officer could reasonably take in the name of safety. Further, the officers’ subjective motivations are irrelevant because the Fourth Amendment’s concern with reasonableness allows certain actions to be taken in certain circumstances, whatever the subjective intent. A criminal history check and the officers’ other actions while Defendant was outside the car were within the lawful scope of the traffic stop.
As to whether the officers violated the Fourth Amendment when they searched Defendant’s car, the panel held that the district court did not err in finding that Defendant unequivocally and specifically consented to a search of the car for firearms. The panel remanded for the district court to conform the written judgment to its oral pronouncement of conditions concerning outpatient substance abuse treatment and vocational services programs.
Court Description: Criminal Law The panel affirmed the district court’s denial of a motion to suppress evidence discovered following a traffic stop, and remanded for the district court to conform the written judgment to its oral pronouncement of sentence, in a case in which Xzavione Taylor entered a conditional guilty plea to being a felon in possession of a firearm. The panel held that the officers did not unreasonably prolong the traffic stop. The panel wrote: • An officer’s asking Taylor two questions about weapons early in the counter—once before the officer learned that Taylor was on federal supervision for being a felon in possession and once after—was a negligibly burdensome precaution that the officer could reasonably take in the name of safety. • An officer did not unlawfully prolong the traffic stop when he asked Taylor to exit the vehicle. • The officers’ subjective motivations are irrelevant because the Fourth Amendment’s concern with reasonableness allows certain actions to be taking in certain circumstances, whatever the subjective intent. • A criminal history check and the officers’ other actions while Taylor was outside the car were within the lawful scope of the traffic stop. UNITED STATES V. TAYLOR 3 • Even if, contrary to precedent, the frisk and criminal history check were beyond the original mission of the traffic stop, they were still permissible based on the officers’ reasonable suspicion of an independent offense: Taylor’s unlawful possession of a gun. As to whether the officers violated the Fourth Amendment when they searched Taylor’s car, the panel held that the district court did not err in finding that Taylor unequivocally and specifically consented to a search of the car for firearms. Taylor conceded that precedent forecloses his constitutional challenge to a risk-notification condition of supervised release. The panel remanded for the district court to conform the written judgment to its oral pronouncement of conditions concerning outpatient substance abuse treatment and vocational services programs.
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