By: Derek Hawkins//August 10, 2015//
Criminal
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Officials: POSNER, EASTERBROOK, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.
Search & Seizure
No. 15-1115 United States of America v. Bodie Witzlib
Consent trumps officer’s refusal to obtain warrant prior to searching of home for explosives.
“The grandmother owned the house but Witzlib also resided there and he argues that therefore his consent was required. We don’t think so. It would be one thing had the police wanted to search his bedroom. To say that the owner of the house could consent to such a search would be as unreasonable as saying that a hotel’s owner or manager could consent to a police search of all the guest rooms. See Georgia v. Randolph, 547 U.S. 103, 112 (2006); Minnesota v. Carter, 525 U.S. 83, 88–90 (1998); cf. Minnesota v. Olson, 495 U.S. 91 (1990). Or that the person refusing consent had a lesser right to decide whether to permit the search than the person granting consent did, for example if they were a married couple and the search would be of their joint household, as in Georgia v. Randolph.”
Affirmed.