Opinion

State v. Castilleja

  • 215 Or. App. 235
  • 168 P.3d 1177
  • 2007 Ore. App. LEXIS 1337
Court
Court of Appeals of Oregon
Filed
Sep 26, 2007
Status
Published
Author
Schuman
On the bench
Brewer, Edmonds, Landau, Haselton, Armstrong, Wollheim, Schuman, Ortega, Rosenblum, Sercombe
Cited by
4 cases
Authority
More cited than 11.1%

Reversed by State v. Castilleja, 345 Or. 255 (2008)

The opinion

SCHUMAN, J.,

dissenting.

A warrantless search, even when it is lawful because it falls within one of the exceptions to the warrant requirement in Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution, is the unilateral act of one branch of government, the executive, unchecked by judicial oversight. As such, the search runs counter to a fundamental principle — perhaps the fundamental principle — of American constitutionalism: distrust of unchecked executive power. For that reason, we should do everything within the law to encourage law enforcement officers and other members of the executive branch to avail themselves of the warrant process. One thing we can do is to take very seriously the mandate that, “[i]n testing an affidavit, a court is to construe it ‘in a commonsense, nontechnical and realistic fashion * * *.’ State v. Charlesworth/Parks, 151 Or App 100, 116 , 951 P2d 153 (1997), rev den[,] 327 Or 82 (1998) (quoting State v. Evans, 110 Or App 46, 51 , 822 P2d 1198 (1991)).” State v. Wilson, 178 Or App 163, 167 , 35 P3d 1111 (2001).

Under that standard, I conclude that the unchallenged and uncontroverted portions of the affidavit in this case, recited at 215 Or App at 272-73 n 11 (Edmonds, J., dissenting), justified the magistrate’s decision to issue the warrant. The reviewing judge erred in ruling otherwise. In other *275 words, even if we were to decide that Loewen’s statements were properly excised and that Judge Jones’s legal analysis deserves deference, the necessary result would nonetheless be reversal.

Landau, J., joins in this dissent.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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