United States v. Blue Diamond Coal Company, Scotia Coal Company

ENGEL, Circuit Judge.

In this appeal we are required to consider whether the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures extends to the warrantless seizure of statutorily required records from the office of a. coal mine company where they were located on a table and open to inspection.

We reverse the district court judgment suppressing the records and directing their return to the coal mine operator.1 In so doing, we recognize that the mine industry is a highly regulated one and that a businessman in such an industry, in accepting the burdens as well as the benefits…