In United States v. Cooley, --- F.3d---, No. 17 -30022 (9th Cir. 2019), the Court affirmed the district court's grant of the defendant's suppression motion.
The case arose from a search performed by a tribal police officer. Much of the decision focuses on tribal authority to seize and search non-Indians. The Court ultimately held that the officer exceeded his
authority as a tribal officer on a public, non-tribal highway
crossing a reservation when he detained the defendant and
twice searched the truck without having ascertained whether
the defendant was an Indian.
The Court also found suppression the appropriate remedy under the Indian Civil Rights Act’s Fourth Amendment
counterpart. On this issue, the Court reminds us of helpful language on suppression that case be used more generally: “[i]f letters and private documents can thus
be seized and held and used in evidence against a citizen
accused of an offense, the protection of the [Fourth]
Amendment, declaring his right to be secure against such
searches and seizures, is of no value, and, so far as those thus
placed are concerned, might as well be stricken from the
Constitution.” Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, 393
(1914).
