Kremen v. United States

Background

Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation found two fugitives, Thompson and Steinberg, at a secluded cabin near Twain Harte, California, in the company of three others including Shirley Kremen and Coleman. The agents kept the cabin under surveillance for about 24 hours and then arrested Thompson and Steinberg outside and Kremen and Coleman inside. The officers had arrest warrants for the two fugitives but none for Kremen or Coleman. The officers searched the four people and then made an exhaustive warrantless search of the cabin, seizing the house's entire contents and transporting those items about two hundred miles to an FBI office; an inventory of those items appears in the appendix.

Reasoning

The central question the Court addressed was whether the search and seizure of the cabin and its contents were lawful. The per curiam majority found that objections to the searches had been properly raised and that taking the whole house and removing its contents for examination exceeded what the Court’s cases allow. The Court said some items seized from the persons might have been admissible, but admitting certain house items seized in the way described made the guilty verdicts unlawful. Because of that unlawful house seizure, the Court reversed the convictions and instructed that the defendants be given new trials.

Real world impact

The decision limits use of household items taken without a search warrant and carried away for distant examination. Law enforcement will be warned that sweeping, warrantless removal of a home’s entire contents can invalidate convictions. The ruling here orders new trials for the defendants, so the result is not a final conviction in this case.

Dissents or concurrances

Justices Burton and Clark dissented, arguing each seized item’s legality should be judged separately, and that any illegally seized items could be handled under the harmless-error rule because other evidence of guilt existed.