# United States v. Nicholas J. McWeeney

> Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · July 21, 2006 · 454 F.3d 1030

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9499049

## Case

- **Full name:** UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Nicholas J. McWEENEY, Defendant-Appellant
- **Court:** Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- **Decided:** July 21, 2006
- **Citations:** 454 F.3d 1030; 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 18320; 2006 WL 2035329
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurring in part by Fletcher
- **Judges:** Goodwin, Fletcher, Fisher
- **Cited by:** 40 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9499049

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- concluding that it would be an “unfair and impermissible burden” on an individual’s right to refuse to be searched if the government could use the refusal against them.
- explaining that a suspect is free, after initially giving consent to a car search, to delimit or withdraw his 4 consent at anytime
- holding that law enforcement officers may not 22 “coerce a citizen into believing that he or she had no authority to enforce” the right to 23 withdraw consent
- holding that law enforcement officers may not "coerce a citizen into believing that he or she had no authority to enforce" the right to withdraw consent
- recognizing that a crime suspect “is free ... after initially giving consent, to delimit or withdraw his or her consent at anytime”

## Opinion text

B. FLETCHER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting in part:
I concur in the majority opinion in all respects except I dissent from the need for remand to determine whether coercion prevented McWeeney from exercising his right to withdraw his consent. McWeeney *1038 and Lopez were told by uniformed officers to face away from the car so that they could not see the search. When one of them peeked over his shoulder he was told in no uncertain terms to turn back. What more “coercion” was needed to prevent them from determining what was going on? To require the district court to consider a laundry list of factors is nonsensical. Any reasonable person would recognize that two punk kids ordered out of their car, by police officers, told to turn their backs while their car is searched are afraid to disobey authority. Accordingly I dissent from the remand.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9499049. Public record. Not legal advice.