This morning, a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel unanimously ruled against the government in a long-running class action lawsuit from the Institute for Justice on behalf of people who rented security deposit boxes at US Private Vaults.
The decision slammed the FBI for overstepping its authority when it opened up hundreds of renters' boxes, conducted criminal searches of them all, and attempted to permanently keep everything in the boxes worth more than $5,000, all without charging any box renter with a crime.
"If this had come out the other way, the government could have exported this raid as a model across the country. Now, the government is on notice its actions violated the Fourth Amendment."
Judge Milan D. Smith, writing for the court, likened the FBI's actions to the abuses that motivated the Bill of Rights: "[T]he government failed to explain why applying the inventory exception to this case would not open the door to the kinds of 'writs of assistance' the British authorities used prior to the Founding to conduct limitless searches of an individual's personal belongings.
Even though the warrant authorizing the raid only permitted the FBI to open boxes to identify their owners and safeguard the contents, agents rummaged through hundreds of boxes, ran currency they found in front of drug sniffing dogs, and made copies of people's most personal records.
"The government promised the magistrate that it would not conduct a criminal search or seizure of the boxes," said IJ Senior Attorney Robert Frommer.
"After years of litigation, today's opinion shows that not to be true. The government lied to justify its forfeiture scheme, and in the end the lie was its undoing."
https://ij.org/press-release/federal-appeals-court-slams-fbis-actions-in-security-deposit-box-raid/
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