GAIL ATWATER,
ET AL., PETITIONERS v. CITY OF LAGO VISTA ET AL.ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF
APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
[April 24, 2001]
JUSTICE O’CONNOR, with whom JUSTICE STEVENS,
JUSTICE GINSBURG, and JUSTICE BREYER join, dissenting.
(EXCERPTED)
The Fourth Amendment guarantees the right to be free from "unreasonable searches and seizures." The Court recognizes that the arrest of Gail Atwater was a "pointless indignity" that served no discernible state interest, ante, at 26, and yet holds that her arrest was constitutionally permissible. Because the Court’s position is inconsistent with the explicit guarantee of the Fourth Amendment, I dissent.
I
A full custodial arrest, such as the one to which Ms. Atwater was subjected, is the quintessential seizure...
II
The record in this case makes it abundantly clear that Ms. Atwater's arrest was constitutionally unreasonable. Atwater readily admits—as she did when Officer Turek pulled her over—that she violated Texas' seatbelt law. Brief for Petitioners 2–3; Record 381, 384. While Turek was justified in stopping Atwater, see Whren v. United States, 517 U. S, at 819, neither law nor reason supports his decision to arrest her instead of simply giving her a citation. The officer's actions cannot sensibly be viewed as a permissible means of balancing Atwater's Fourth Amendment interests with the State’s own legitimate interests.
There is no question that Officer Turek's actions severely infringed Atwater's liberty and privacy. Turek was loud and accusatory from the moment he approached Atwater's car. Atwater's young children were terrified and hysterical. Yet when Atwater asked Turek to lower his voice because he was scaring the children, he responded by jabbing his finger in Atwater's face and saying, "You’re going to jail." Record 382, 384. Having made the decision to arrest, Turek did not inform Atwater of her right to remain silent. Id., at 390, 704. He instead asked for her license and insurance information. Id., at 382. But cf. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966).
Atwater asked if she could at least take her children to a friend's house down the street before going to the police station. Record 384. But Turek—who had just castigated Atwater for not caring for her children—refused and said he would take the children into custody as well. Id., at 384, 427, 704–705. Only the intervention of neighborhood children who had witnessed the scene and summoned one of Atwater's friends saved the children from being hauled to jail with their mother. Id., at 382, 385–386.
With the children gone, Officer Turek handcuffed Ms. Atwater with her hands behind her back, placed her in the police car, and drove her to the police station. Id., at 386–387. Ironically, Turek did not secure Atwater in a seat belt for the drive. Id., at 386. At the station, Atwater was forced to remove her shoes, relinquish her possessions, and wait in a holding cell for about an hour. Id., at 387,706. A judge finally informed Atwater of her rights and the charges against her, and released her when she posted bond. Id., at 387–388, 706. Atwater returned to the scene of the arrest, only to find that her car had been towed. Id., at 389....
It is difficult to see how arresting Atwater served either of these goals any more effectively than the issuance of a citation. With respect to the goal of law enforcement generally, Atwater did not pose a great danger to the community. She had been driving very slowly—approximately 15 miles per hour—in broad daylight on a residential street that had no other traffic. Record 380. Nor was she a repeat offender; until that day, she had received one traffic citation in her life — a ticket, more than 10 years earlier, for failure to signal a lane change. Id., at 378.
Although Officer Turek had stopped Atwater approximately three months earlier because he thought that Atwater's son was not wearing a seatbelt, id., at 420, Turek had been mistaken, id., at 379, 703. Moreover, Atwater immediately accepted responsibility and apologized for her conduct. Id., at 381, 384, 420. Thus, there was every indication that Atwater would have buckled herself and her children in had she been cited and allowed to leave.
With respect to the related goal of child welfare, the decision to arrest Atwater was nothing short of counter-productive. Atwater's children witnessed Officer Turek yell at their mother and threaten to take them all into custody. Ultimately, they were forced to leave her behind with Turek, knowing that she was being taken to jail. Understandably, the 3-year-old boy was "very, very, very traumatized." Id., at 393. After the incident, he had to see a child psychologist regularly, who reported that the boy "felt very guilty that he couldn’t stop this horrible thing . . . he was powerless to help his mother or sister."
Id., at 396. Both of Atwater's children are now terrified at the sight of any police car. Id., at 393, 395. According to Atwater, the arrest "just never leaves us. It’s a conversation we have every other day, once a week, and it’s —it raises its head constantly in our lives." Id., at 395. Citing Atwater surely would have served the children's interests well. It would have taught Atwater to ensure that her children were buckled up in the future. It also would have taught the children an important lesson in accepting responsibility and obeying the law. Arresting Atwater, though, taught the children an entirely different lesson: that "the bad person could just as easily be the policeman as it could be the most horrible person they could imagine." Ibid.
Respondents also contend that the arrest was necessary to ensure Atwater's appearance in court. Atwater, however, was far from a flight risk. A 16-year resident of Lago Vista, population 2,486, Atwater was not likely to abscond. See Record 376; Texas State Data Center, 1997 Total Population Estimates for Texas Places 15 (Sept. 1998). Although she was unable to produce her driver’s license because it had been stolen, she gave Officer Turek her license number and address. Record 386. In addition, Officer Turek knew from their previous encounter that Atwater was a local resident.
The city's justifications fall far short of rationalizing the extraordinary intrusion on Gail Atwater and her children. Measuring "the degree to which [Atwater's custodial arrest was] needed for the promotion of legitimate governmental interests," against "the degree to which it intrud[ed] upon [her] privacy," Wyoming v. Houghton, 526 U. S., at 300, it can hardly be doubted that Turek's actions were disproportionate to Atwater's crime. The majority’s assessment that "Atwater's claim to live free of pointless indignity and confinement clearly outweighs anything the City can raise against it specific to her case," ante , at 26, is quite correct. In my view, the Fourth Amendment inquiry ends there.
The Court's error, however, does not merely affect the disposition of this case. The per se rule that the Court creates has potentially serious consequences for the everyday lives of Americans. A broad range of conduct falls into the category of fine-only misdemeanors... Such unbounded discretion carries with it grave potential for abuse. The majority takes comfort in the lack of evidence of "an epidemic of unnecessary minor-offense arrests."...
The Court neglects the
Fourth Amendment’s express command in
the name of administrative ease. In so doing, it
cloaks the pointless indignity that Gail Atwater [and her children] suffered with
the mantle of reasonableness.
I respectfully dissent.
[ Complete dissent
by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor & majority opinion by Justice David H. Souter are available at
[ Erosion of freedom may occur in both large and small increments ]
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