Commonwealth v. Maguire

215 A.3d 566

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee

v.Jeffery Charles MAGUIRE, Appellant

No. 41 MAP 2018

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued: May 15, 2019

Decided: August 22, 2019

OPINION

JUSTICE BAER In Commonwealth v. Tarbert , 517 Pa. 277, 535 A.2d 1035 (1987) (plurality), and Commonwealth v. Blouse , 531 Pa. 167, 611 A.2d 1177 (1992), this Court adopted guidelines for assessing the constitutionality of government-conducted systematic vehicle checkpoints to which the entirety of the public are subjected. Our primary task in this appeal is to examine whether the Tarbert/Blouse guidelines are applicable to statutorily authorized warrantless inspections of commercial vehicles. We hold that these guidelines are inapplicable in assessing the constitutionality of statutorily authorized warrantless inspections of commercial vehicles; instead, such inspections should be scrutinized in accord with the test outlined by the United States Supreme Court in New York v. Burger , 482 U.S. 691, 107 S.Ct. 2636, 96 L.Ed.2d 601 (1987), and adopted by this Court in Commonwealth v. Petroll , 558 Pa. 565, 738 A.2d 993 (1999), which we discuss in detail infra . Because a panel of the Superior Court, in a two-to-one majority decision, reached the correct result, we affirm that court's judgment, which reversed a trial court's order granting a motion to suppress evidence filed by Jeffery Maguire ("Appellant").

I. Background

We glean our summary of this matter primarily from the trial court's findings-of-fact entered after a hearing on a motion to suppress the evidence filed by Appellant. Trial Court Opinion and Order, 3/22/2016, at ¶¶ 1-35. The court's findings are supported by the record.

On May 20, 2015, the Pennsylvania State Police and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection ("DEP") set up a commercial vehicle inspection program authorized by Subsection 4704(a)(2) of the Vehicle Code, 75 Pa.C.S. § 4704(a)(2), which provides as follows:

(2) Systematic vehicle inspection programs.-- Any Pennsylvania State Police officer or qualified Commonwealth employee engaged in a systematic vehicle inspection program may inspect any vehicle, driver, documents, equipment and load to determine whether they meet standards established in department regulations.

75 Pa.C.S. § 4704(a)(2).

The inspection program was scheduled approximately one month in advance and occurred at a Clinton County landfill located in the Village of McElhatten. Pennsylvania State Trooper Cory Beaver, a Motor Vehicle Enforcement Officer, and a Motor Carrier Enforcement Supervisor comprised the three person Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Team ("Team") that conducted the checkpoint inspections. The Team was stationed in a lot in front of the scale house near the entrance of the landfill.

They established and utilized a procedure whereby the first Team member available would stop the next truck entering the landfill.

At approximately 2:50 p.m., it was Trooper Beaver's turn to inspect a truck when he observed a red and white International tri-axle dump truck about to enter the Landfill. The trooper exited his vehicle and motioned for that truck to pull into the lot where the Team was located. The driver of that vehicle was Appellant, and he complied with the trooper's request. Trooper Beaver then approached the truck.

Appellant opened the truck's driver's side door, and Trooper Beaver engaged Appellant in conversation. The trooper asked Appellant to provide him with documents pertinent to the truck and its operation before he began the actual inspection of the truck. During the course of this conversation, the trooper detected the smell of alcohol on Appellant's breath. Trooper Beaver then conducted a "Level Two" inspection, which included a review of Appellant's documents and a walk-around inspection of the truck, checking its lights, horn, wipers, tires, and wheels.

Following the inspection, Trooper Beaver had Appellant exit the truck, told him that he smelled of alcohol, and asked whether he had been drinking. Appellant stated that he drank one beer on his trip to the landfill. At that point, the trooper noticed a cooler on the floor of the truck near the gearshift. The trooper inquired as to the contents of the cooler, and Appellant responded that he had placed water and beer in it. The trooper observed that the cooler contained a yellow plastic bag that was wet from ice, three twelve-ounce cans of Busch Light beer, and one or two bottles of water. Trooper Beaver then had Appellant perform field sobriety testing, which Appellant ultimately failed. The trooper arrested Appellant, who was transported to the Jersey Shore Hospital for blood testing. The Commonwealth charged Appellant with several counts of driving under the influence ("DUI"), as well as five counts of unlawful activities.

Appellant subsequently filed a motion to suppress the evidence. In that motion, Appellant contended that, to meet Fourth Amendment constitutional search and seizure requirements, the Team's inspection program needed to comply with the Tarbert/Blouse guidelines, which were promulgated to test the constitutionality of systematic, police-conducted vehicle checkpoints. Regarding these guidelines, Appellant noted, this Court has explained that to pass constitutional muster under Tarbert/Blouse , a vehicle checkpoint must meet the following five criteria:

(1) vehicle stops must be brief and must not entail a physical search;

(2) there must be sufficient warning of the existence of the checkpoint;

(3) the decision to conduct a checkpoint, as well as the decisions as to time and place for the checkpoint, must be subject to prior administrative approval;

(4) the choice of time and place for the checkpoint must be based on local experience as to where and when intoxicated drivers are likely to be traveling; and

(5) the decision as to which vehicles to stop at the checkpoint must be established by administratively pre-fixed, objective standards, and must not be left to the unfettered discretion of the officers at the scene.

Commonwealth v. Worthy , 598 Pa. 470, 957 A.2d 720, 725 (2008).

Citing to the Superior Court's decision in In re J.A.K. , 908 A.2d 322 (Pa. Super. 2006) (applying the Tarbert/Blouse guidelines to a seatbelt checkpoint), Appellant argued that, like checkpoints applicable to the general public, commercial vehicle safety checkpoints must comply with the Tarbert/Blouse guidelines to survive a constitutional challenge. Appellant solely asserted that the inspection checkpoint to which he was subjected on May 20, 2015, failed to meet these guidelines. Because Appellant believed that Trooper Beaver unconstitutionally searched and seized him as part of the inspection program, he argued that the trial court should suppress any evidence discovered as "fruit of the poisonous tree."

On March 14, 2016, the trial court held a hearing on Appellant's motion to suppress. Trooper Beaver was the only witness to testify at the hearing, and he testified to the facts as stated above. In terms of legal arguments, Appellant reiterated his position that the May 20th inspection of his dump truck was unconstitutional because the Team's program failed to comply with the Tarbert/Blouse guidelines. For its part, the Commonwealth contended that the Tarbert/Blouse guidelines are inapplicable to commercial vehicle safety checkpoints that are authorized by statute. In this regard, the Commonwealth highlighted that Section 4704 of the Vehicle Code specifically allows for systematic inspections of trucks like the program conducted by the Team on May 20, 2015.

At the end of the suppression hearing, the trial court stated that the parties could submit post-hearing legal memoranda, and the Commonwealth took advantage of that opportunity. In its memorandum, the Commonwealth renewed its contention that the Tarbert/Blouse guidelines do not apply to statutorily authorized commercial vehicle inspections. In support of its position, the Commonwealth invoked several cases, including Commonwealth v. Petroll , 558 Pa. 565, 738 A.2d 993 (1999), for the proposition that "[t]ruck drivers of commercial vehicles are part of a closely regulated industry that, due to public safety concerns, are entitled to less Fourth Amendment protections tha[n] those of regular drivers on the highways." Commonwealth's Memorandum of Law, 3/16/2016, at 1.

According to the Commonwealth, pursuant to Petroll , warrantless inspections of vehicles involved in a closely regulated industry are constitutionally permissible if: (1) there is a substantial government interest that informs the regulatory scheme pursuant to which the inspections are made; (2) warrantless inspections are necessary to further the regulatory scheme; and (3) the statute's inspection program, in terms of certainty and regularity of its application, provides a constitutionally adequate substitute for a warrant, i.e. , the regulatory statute must perform the two basic functions of a warrant: it must advise the owner of the commercial business that the search is being made pursuant to the law and has a properly defined scope, and it must limit the discretion of the inspecting officers. The Commonwealth insisted that the commercial vehicle inspection program that occurred in this case was authorized by Section 4704 of the Vehicle Code and met these constitutional requirements.

On March 22, 2016, the trial court entered an opinion and order granting Appellant's motion to suppress. In so doing, the court observed that in Commonwealth v. Garibay , 106 A.3d 136 (Pa. Super. 2014) (applying the Tarbert/Blouse guidelines to a seatbelt checkpoint), the Superior Court held that there is no difference in the standards required for establishing DUI and non-DUI checkpoints. Based upon this premise, the trial court concluded that the Tarbert/Blouse guidelines apply to the commercial vehicle inspection program to which Appellant was subjected. The court ultimately determined that the Commonwealth failed to...