United States v. Gordon

O’BRIEN, Senior Circuit Judge.

This interesting case calls upon us to decide whether, incident to an arrest for aggravated assault, police may seize a shotgun from a home when the weapon was not involved in any apparent criminal offense, the crime scene had been secured, and there was no immediate danger to any individual. Our answer to that question-NO-begs another. Does a de minimis violation of a defendant’s property rights make a seizure constitutionally unreasonable and thereby justify suppressing evidence, particularly when suppression is highly unlikely to deter improper police…