Lead Opinion
The issue presented by this appeal is whether article first, § 7, of the Connecticut constitution
THE FACTS
The record reveals the following undisputed facts. In May, 2012, the Berlin Police Department received an anonymous tip that the defendant was boasting about growing marijuana at a condominium complex on Main Street in the town of Berlin. The case was assigned to Detective Shaun Solek, who determined that the condominium complex in question was a former factory located at 10 Main Street. Solek also discovered that the defendant lived in unit 204. Because the complex was still under construction, Solek contacted the developer, Corporation for Independent Living (developer), to request permission to enter the building. The developer referred Solek to the property manager, Connecticut Real Estate Management, whose owner, Alyssa Pillion, signed a consent form allowing Solek and Officer Eric Chase, a canine handler with the Berlin Police Department, to conduct a canine examination of the common areas of the building.
On the afternoon of May 29, 2012, Solek and Chase went to the condominium complex and were admitted into the building by Stephen Martino, the developer's property manager. As the trial court found, "[t]he first two floors contained thirty-four residential units, only a portion of which [was] completed and occupied. The outside doors to the multiunit building are normally locked, and access is gained through a keypad. Chase, who is a trained canine handler, was accompanied by his German Shepherd dog, Zeusz. Zeusz had been trained to detect eight substances including marijuana, hash [ish], crack cocaine, cocaine, ecstasy, and methamphetamine. Prior to the search of the complex, Chase was not informed ... which condominium unit was under investigation.
"Chase first had Zeusz conduct a presearch of the first floor common hallway. During the presearch, Zeusz is allowed to walk throughout the hallway without direction from his handler. After the presearch, Chase conducted a directed search in which Zeusz was commanded to sniff at the bottom of the front door of each condominium [unit] on the first floor. The same presearch and directed search procedures were also conducted on the second floor. When Zeusz performed his sniff at the bottom of the door to unit 204, the dog sat down in front of the door, which constituted a passive alert that [Zeusz] had detected contraband. Chase directed Zeusz to perform a second directed search on the second floor and Zeusz again gave a passive alert for drugs at unit 204. Chase knocked on the door but received no response. Chase remained at the door to [e]nsure that no one entered the premises, and Solek left to prepare a search warrant for [the] unit .... Approximately four hours later, Solek returned with a signed search warrant. Upon executing the warrant, the police discovered an indoor greenhouse containing marijuana plants, as well as seeds, lighting equipment and various firearms." The defendant was arrested and charged with several drug offenses and illegal possession of an assault weapon.
II
THE TRIAL COURT'S DECISION
The defendant subsequently filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized from his condominium on
the ground that a canine sniff of the threshold of his home, for the purpose of investigating the home's contents, constituted a search under both the fourth amendment and article first, § 7, of the state constitution. Specifically, the defendant argued that his front door and the hallway adjacent thereto were within the constitutionally protected curtilage of his condominium unit such that the entry of a dog into that area for the purpose of conducting a drug sniff constituted a trespass. The defendant further argued that a sniff by a well trained narcotics dog for the purpose of detecting drugs inside his home violated his reasonable expectation of privacy under
Katz
v.
United States
,
In reaching its determination, the trial court relied on
United States
v.
Thomas
,
The trial court also rejected the state's contention that the search did not require a warrant supported by probable cause "because a dog sniff can ... determine [only] whether a home contains contraband, and no one has a reasonable expectation of privacy in contraband." In support of this contention, the state relied on
United States
v.
Place
,
Specifically, the trial court stated: "The use of a drug detection dog situated in a common hallway outside the front door to a condominium [unit] is no less an intrusion into the privacy of one's home than the [use of a] drug detection dog ... on the front porch of the single-family residence in Jardines . To rule otherwise would afford residents of this state who reside in multifamily apartments less a measure of privacy protected by the fourth amendment than their more well-off neighbors." The trial court stated further: "It would also allow law enforcement to troll through the hallways of apartment buildings, including public housing projects, with drug sniffing dogs to search for contraband within individual apartments .... Such arbitrary and unfettered discretion is assuredly repugnant to the fourth amendment." (Citation omitted.) Thereafter, the trial court granted the defendant's motion to dismiss the charges against him on the ground that none of the state's evidence would be admissible at a trial.
III
ANALYSIS UNDER ARTICLE FIRST, § 7, OF THE CONNECTICUT CONSTITUTION
On appeal, the state reasserts its contention that the canine sniff of the defendant's front door and the hallway adjacent thereto was not a search under article first, § 7, because the defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the area searched or in the contraband inside his home. We are not persuaded by the state's argument.
It is well established that this court, in determining whether the police conducted a search under article first, § 7, "employ[s] the same analytical framework that would be used under the federal constitution .... Specifically, we ask whether the defendant has established that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the area or thing searched."
State
v.
Davis
,
"The determination that a particular place is protected under [article first, § 7] requires that it be one in which society is prepared, because of its code of values and its notions of custom and civility, to give deference to a manifested expectation of privacy .... It must be one that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable .... Legitimate expectations of privacy derive from concepts of real or personal property law or [from] understandings that are recognized and permitted by society. One of the main rights attaching to property is the right to exclude others ... and one who owns or lawfully possesses or controls property will in all likelihood have a legitimate expectation of privacy by virtue of this right to exclude .... Of course, one need not have an untrammeled power to admit and exclude in order to claim the protection of [article first, § 7, as] long as the place involved is one affording an expectation of privacy that society regards as reasonable."
Additional principles guide our analysis of the state's claim, chief among
them the bedrock principle that "[p]rivacy expectations are ... highest and are accorded the strongest constitutional protection in the case of a private home and the area immediately surrounding it."
State
v.
Brown
,
Finally, "[i]n determining the contours of the protections provided by our state constitution, we employ a multifactor approach that we first adopted in [
State
v.
Geisler
,
On balance, we believe that federal precedent provides support for the defendant's claim of a state constitutional violation. As we previously noted, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals decided more than thirty years ago that a canine sniff of the common hallway of a multiunit apartment building, for the purpose of detecting drugs inside one of the apartments, constitutes a search within the meaning of the fourth amendment.
United States
v.
Thomas
, supra,
After the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the trial court's denial of Kyllo's motion to suppress; see
In reaching its conclusion, the court rejected the government's contention that the thermal imaging was not a search because it did not reveal "private activities occurring in private areas ...." (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.)
More recently, in
Jardines
, the court was asked to decide "whether using a [drug sniffing] dog on a homeowner's porch to investigate the contents of the home is a search within the meaning of the [f]ourth [a]mendment." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
Florida
v.
Jardines
, supra,
Jardines was charged with trafficking in cannabis and later moved to suppress the evidence seized from his home on the ground that the officers' use of a dog to detect drugs inside the home violated the fourth amendment. See
In doing so, however, the court did not apply the reasonable expectation of privacy test recognized in
Katz
, as it did in
Kyllo
, but opted instead to view the matter through a common-law property lens. See
Having determined that the officers intruded on constitutionally protected curtilage, the court next considered whether Jardines "had given his leave (even implicitly) for them to do so."
"But introducing a trained police dog to explore the area around the home in hopes of discovering incriminating evidence is something else. There is no customary invitation to do that. An invitation to engage in canine forensic investigation assuredly does not inhere in the very act of hanging a knocker. To find a visitor knocking on the door is routine (even if sometimes unwelcome);
to spot that same visitor exploring the front path with a metal detector, or marching his bloodhound
into the garden before saying hello and asking permission, would inspire most of us to ... call the police. The scope of a license-express or implied-is limited not only to a particular area but also to a specific purpose .... Here, the background social norms that invite a visitor to the front door do not invite him there to conduct a search." (Citations omitted; emphasis omitted; footnotes omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.)
In a concurring opinion joined by Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor, Justice Kagan explained that she "could just as happily have decided [the case] by looking to Jardines' privacy interests."
Justice Kagan also explained that "the sentiment 'my home is my own,' while originating in property law, now also denotes a common understanding-extending even beyond that law's formal protections-about an especially private sphere. Jardines' home was his property; it was also his most intimate and familiar space. The analysis proceeding from each of those facts ... runs mostly along the same path.
"I can think of only one divergence: If [the court] had decided this case on privacy grounds, [it] would have realized that Kyllo ... already resolved it. The [court in] Kyllo ... held that police officers conducted a search when they used a [thermal imaging] device to detect heat emanating from a private home, even though they committed no trespass. Highlighting [the court's] intention to draw both a 'firm' and a 'bright' line at 'the entrance to the house' ... [it] announced the following rule:
" 'Where, as here, the [g]overnment uses a device that is not in general public use, to explore details of the home that would previously have been unknowable without physical intrusion, the surveillance is a "search" and is presumptively unreasonable without a warrant.' ...
"That 'firm' and 'bright' rule governs this case: The police officers ... conducted a search because they used a 'device ... not in general public use' (a trained [drug detection] dog) to 'explore details of the home' (the presence of certain substances) that they would not otherwise have discovered without entering the premises." (Citations omitted; footnote
omitted.)
Since
Jardines
, only one federal circuit court of appeals has considered whether a canine sniff of an apartment door in a multiunit apartment building, for the purpose of detecting drugs inside of the apartment, constitutes a search under the fourth amendment. See
United States
v.
Whitaker
, supra,
Whitaker moved to suppress the evidence seized from his apartment, arguing, inter alia, that the use of the dog to detect contraband inside his home was a search under the fourth amendment and
Jardines
.
The Seventh Circuit noted, moreover, just as the Second Circuit did in
Thomas
, that "the fact that this was a search of a home distinguishes this case from dog sniffs in public places in
United States
v.
Place
, [supra,
Even more recently, in
United States
v.
Hopkins
,
Citing the canine handler's testimony that the dog had come within "six to eight inches" of the door and "actually sniffed the creases of the door"; (internal quotation marks omitted) id., at 732 ; and noting that "[t]he area within [one] foot of the only door to the [townhouse] would be used every day by its residents as they came and went"; id. ; the court concluded that the first and third Dunn factors were met and, therefore, that the area in question was curtilage. See id. The court did determine that the second and fourth Dunn factors were not met, but it noted that the same was true in Jardines , and the United States Supreme Court still determined that the front porch in that case was curtilage. See id.
Because we address the state's claim under the state constitution, we need not decide whether a canine sniff of an apartment door inside a multiunit building violates the fourth amendment. In the absence of significant precedent to the contrary of which we are unaware, however, and despite conflicting court decisions, we agree with the defendant that the better reasoned federal case law concerning the propriety of residential canine sniffs under the fourth amendment supports the defendant's position in this case. This is true whether the defendant's claim is reviewed under the Katz line of privacy based decisions or under the principles of curtilage on which the court in Jardines relied and that the Eighth Circuit applied in Hopkins .
The state cites several federal cases for the proposition that the canine sniff of the defendant's front door was not a search because "there 'exists no generalized expectation of privacy in the common areas of an apartment
building,' which [include] a 'common hallway.' "
The state also cites three federal district court cases that conclude that a canine sniff of the hallway adjacent to an apartment in a multiunit apartment building is not a search, in part because the resident lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy in the common areas of the building. See
United States
v.
Mathews
, United States District Court, Docket No. 13-79 (ADM/AJB) (D. Minn. October 25, 2013) ("[b]ecause they are shared by multiple tenants, no reasonable expectation of privacy arises in such common areas"), aff'd on other grounds,
The state also argues that the canine sniff was not a search under the state constitution because the defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in any contraband inside his condominium. Relying on the reasoning of
United States
v.
Place
, supra,
Although we ultimately disagree with the state's contention that the present case is controlled by
Place
and
Caballes
, we acknowledge that the state's fourth amendment analysis does find support in a number of federal and sister state cases. These cases hold that, whatever the extent of privacy rights otherwise pertaining to common hallways in multitenant buildings, a canine sniff of an apartment building or other residence is not a search because it discloses only the existence of contraband.
We acknowledge that, in
Place
and, more recently, in
Caballes
, the United States Supreme Court employed reasoning that supports the conclusion that a canine sniff is not a search under the fourth amendment because that investigative technique reveals only the
existence of contraband, and one's subjective expectation of privacy in contraband is not objectively reasonable. See
Illinois
v.
Caballes
, supra,
Furthermore, this distinction between searches of the home and searches of locations outside the home is consistent with the established priorities of article first, § 7, of the Connecticut constitution. As we noted in
State
v.
Miller
, supra,
Thus, we agree with the Seventh and Second Circuits that a resident's legitimate expectation of privacy in the home is capacious enough to preclude certain uses of the common areas immediately adjacent to the home. As the Seventh Circuit explained, the defendant's "lack of a right to exclude did not mean [that] he had no right to expect certain norms of behavior in his apartment hallway. [To be sure], other residents and their guests
and even their dogs) can pass through the hallway. They are not entitled, though, to set up chairs and have a party in the hallway right outside the door. Similarly, the fact that a police officer might lawfully walk by and hear loud voices from inside an apartment does not mean [that] he could put a stethoscope to the door to listen to all that is happening inside."
United States
v.
Whitaker
, supra,
In other words, a defendant's "lack of a reasonable expectation of complete privacy in the hallway does not also mean that he had no reasonable expectation of privacy against persons in the hallway snooping into his apartment using sensitive devices not available to the general public."
Indeed, even if a canine sniff were to reveal nothing about the interior of the home, we believe that the underlying prohibition against unreasonable intrusions into the sanctity of the home cannot abide the public spectacle of a warrantless canine investigation of the perimeters of any home. It may well be that a canine sniff itself is "discriminating and unoffensive" when compared to other physical intrusions of the premises of a home.
United States
v.
Thomas
, supra,
In view of the foregoing, we agree with those federal courts that have distinguished canine sniffs of the home from canine sniffs of movable property. While we have previously suggested that the "heightened privacy interests that pertain to one's house" might demand a more rigorous assessment of canine sniffs than the privacy interests in movable property; see
State
v.
Waz
, supra,
Turning to precedent from other state courts, we note that only seven states appear to have addressed the issue of whether a canine sniff of an apartment door in a multiunit building is a search with constitutional implications. Five have concluded, either under the federal constitution or their respective state constitutions, that it is a search and that it requires either a reasonable, articulable suspicion or a warrant supported by probable cause. See
People
v.
Burns
,
In addition, the Florida Supreme Court and Washington Court of Appeals both have concluded that a canine sniff of the front door of a single-family home violates the resident's reasonable expectation of privacy in his home and therefore requires a warrant supported by probable cause. See
Jardines
v.
State
, supra,
Finally, several state appellate courts have determined that even a canine sniff of a nonresidential property may be a search under their respective state constitutions and may require a reasonable, articulable suspicion. In Alaska, a canine sniff of a commercial warehouse requires a reasonable and articulable suspicion;
McGahan
v.
State
,
In the other column, we are aware of only two state appellate courts that have concluded that a canine sniff of an apartment door in a multiunit building is not a search for fourth amendment purposes.
In
Nguyen
, the North Dakota Supreme Court held, first, that the technical trespass of police officers in the common hallways of an apartment building "[was] of no consequence because [the defendant, Matthew D.] Nguyen, had no reasonable expectation that the common hallways of the apartment building would be free from any intrusion."
State
v.
Nguyen
, supra,
Finally, we perceive no principled reason of public policy, and the state has identified none, why, in the context of canine sniffs, the firm and bright line that we draw at the entrance of the house should apply to single-family dwellings but not to dwellings in a multiunit building. Indeed, as the Seventh Circuit observed in
Whitaker
, allowing police dogs to sniff the doors of apartments but not freestanding homes would be deeply "troubling because it would apportion [constitutional] protections on grounds that correlate with income, race, and ethnicity. For example, according to the [United States Census Bureau's] American Housing Survey for 2013, 67.8 [percent] of households composed solely of whites live in [one unit] detached houses. For households solely composed of blacks, that number dropped to 47.2 [percent]. And for Hispanic households, that number was 52.1 [percent]. The percentage of households that live in [single unit], detached houses consistently rises with income. At the low end, 40.9 [percent] of households that earned less than $10,000 lived in [single unit], detached houses, and, at the high end, 84 [percent] of households that earned more than $120,000 did so."
United States
v.
Whitaker
, supra,
Accordingly, we are unable to agree with the state that all canine sniffs are constitutionally innocuous. Rather, for the reasons previously discussed in this opinion, we conclude that a canine sniff directed toward a home-whether freestanding or part of a multitenant structure-is a search under article first, § 7, and, as such, requires a warrant issued upon a court's finding of probable cause.
IV
RESPONSE TO THE CONCURRING JUSTICE
In his concurring opinion, Justice Zarella contends that we should have decided this case under the federal constitution rather than under the state constitution. In support of this contention, he states that, as a general matter, "the proper mode of analysis [in a case involving claims under both the federal and state constitutions] should be to address the federal claim first, turning to the state constitutional claim only after determining that the federal constitution does not provide a basis for relief or if the applicable federal rule is truly unsettled."
Because Justice Zarella concludes that the defendant in the present case prevails under settled fourth amendment principles, he asserts that we have no cause to consider the defendant's state constitutional claim. We agree with Justice Zarella that we turn first to the state constitutional claim when the issue is unsettled under the federal constitution or, if it is settled under the federal constitution, when the defendant is not entitled to relief thereunder. Cf.
State
v.
Santiago
,
D.
Braithwaite, " An Analysis of the 'Divergence Factors': A Misguided Approach to Search and Seizure Jurisprudence Under the New Jersey Constitution,"
We disagree, however, that federal case law definitively resolves the issue presented by this appeal. As we have indicated, only two federal appeals courts have determined that the use of a canine sniff at a home is a search for purposes of the fourth amendment, and the case on which Justice Zarella primarily relies,
United States
v.
Thomas
, supra, 757 F.2d at1367, has been criticized by a significant number of federal courts.
As this criticism of
Thomas
reflects, the United States Supreme Court has never retreated from its reasoning in
Place
, namely, that a canine sniff of luggage at a public airport is not a search for fourth amendment purposes because that investigative technique reveals only contraband in which the subject of the investigation
has no legitimate expectation of privacy. See, e.g.,
United States
v.
Jacobsen
,
The judgment is affirmed.
In this opinion ROGERS, C.J., and McDONALD, ROBINSON and VERTEFEUILLE, Js., concurred.
ZARELLA, J., concurring in the judgment.
I agree that the use of a dog sniff to detect contraband inside the condominium unit occupied by the defendant, Dennis Kono, violated his rights, but for reasons different from those given by the majority. The majority relies on our state constitution, but, in my view, looking to the state constitution is unnecessary when, as in the present case, existing federal constitutional doctrine favors the defendant. Instead, when a party raises a claim under both the federal and state constitutions, the proper mode of analysis should be to address the federal claim first, turning to the state constitutional claim only after determining that the federal constitution does not provide a basis for relief or if the applicable federal rule is truly unsettled. I therefore respectfully concur only in the judgment.
I
Turning to the federal constitutional question, I would first conclude that federal case law from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit resolves the federal constitutional claim before us. Three decades ago, in
United States
v.
Thomas
,
I see no compelling reason to depart from the approach of the Second Circuit in the present case. Nothing has eroded the basis for its holding in
Thomas
since that case was decided. Although
Thomas
was decided more than thirty years ago and was originally met with criticism, the Second Circuit has more recently cited it with approval;
United States
v.
Hayes
, supra,
II
Because we may resolve the present case in the defendant's favor under the federal constitution, I disagree with the majority's decision to sidestep the federal constitution and instead resolve this issue by creating new doctrine under the state constitution. Specifically, I disagree with the majority's assertion, which is made without citation to authority, that we should analyze a federal constitutional claim first only if we are "able to say with a high degree of confidence that the United States Supreme Court, if presented with the federal constitutional claim," would reach the same conclusion. Footnote 23 of the majority opinion. The ability to confidently forecast how the United States Supreme Court might decide a question has not, in prior decisions, been treated as a prerequisite to beginning with a federal constitutional analysis. See generally, e.g.,
Pham
v.
Starkowski
,
To be sure, if the federal rule were truly unsettled-perhaps if neither the United States Supreme Court nor the Second Circuit had addressed the question, and other federal courts were generally silent on the matter-I might agree with the majority's approach. In the present case, however, the Second Circuit has already spoken on the question before us, on at least two occasions, so its decision is already binding on federal law enforcement personnel and the federal district courts in this state .
In addition, resolving the case under the federal constitution is more consistent with the procedural history of this case. Throughout the proceedings, the parties have principally argued the case under the federal constitution. In the trial court, the defendant moved to suppress the evidence at issue first under the federal constitution and only added a claim under the state constitution as an alternative. The trial court decided the motion to suppress in the defendant's favor under the federal constitution and therefore found it unnecessary to address the claim under the state constitution, leaving us without any lower court ruling on the state constitution to consider. And, because the trial court based its decision on the federal constitution alone, the parties in their appeal to this court again focused their arguments on the federal constitution, presenting the state constitutional claim as an alternative ground for affirmance. Reaching the state constitutional issue in the present appeal is unnecessary.
Perhaps the majority is concerned that the United States Supreme Court might disagree with its conclusion, and thus wants to insulate our decision from further review and possible reversal. This reasoning has its proponents; see, e.g., W. Horton, The Connecticut State Constitution (2d Ed. 2012) p. 36; but it seems to me to be an insufficient reason to avoid applying the federal constitution when it is otherwise dispositive. If the United States Supreme Court ever does overrule
Thomas
, in either this case or another case, we could revisit the question under our state constitution
then
,
when there is actually a principled need for doing so, and with the added benefit of being able to consider the United States Supreme Court's rationale as we consider the parameters of our own constitution. Indeed, if the United States Supreme Court were to disagree with
Thomas
, the validity of the majority's state constitutional analysis will necessarily be called into question in any event, given that we consider federal law when interpreting our state constitution and our understanding of federal law would have been incorrect.
III
The majority's decision to look first to the state constitution-a view grounded, in my view, on a faulty premise-highlights an inconsistency in our case law about whether we should first look to the federal or the state constitution when claims under both are properly raised.
Our prior cases, including many search and seizure cases, do not reflect a principled approach to this question. For example, this court has, on a few occasions, relied solely on the state constitution without any explanation of why it did not conduct any analysis under the federal constitution. See, e.g.,
State
v.
Joyce
,
This waffling between deciding claims variously under the state or federal constitution, especially in the area of search and seizure law, is not a practice that we should perpetuate-at the very least because it gives our constitutional jurisprudence the appearance of being unprincipled. I would take this opportunity to clarify our mode of analysis with respect to the order of our consideration of federal and state constitutional issues. In my view, when a party properly raises a claim under both a federal constitutional provision and a comparable state constitutional provision, the better practice is to first address the question under the federal constitution, turning to the state constitution only after concluding that the federal provision does not provide a basis for relief or if the interpretation of the federal provision is truly unsettled or ambiguous. Ultimately, the quality of our constitutional analysis is most critical in a given case, but there are several prudential reasons to prefer consideration of the federal constitution first.
A
For one thing, looking to the federal constitution first is more consistent with the reality of existing legal doctrine concerning individual rights and with our understanding of the role of our state constitution, which recognizes that the federal constitution sets a national minimum for the protection of individual rights but leaves states to interpret their constitutions to provide greater protection.
Some commentators and courts recommend looking to the state constitution first when confronted with a claim under both the federal and state constitution-an approach commonly referred to as the primacy model. Under this approach, the state court looks first to its own state constitution, looking to the federal constitution only if the state constitution fails to provide a basis for relief. See, e.g., W. Horton, supra, p. 37; J. Landau, " Some Thoughts About 'State Constitutional Interpretation,"
H. Linde, "First Things First: Rediscovering the States' Bill of Rights,"
But this approach is inconsistent with the plain reality that federal constitutional law now dominates the field of individual constitutional rights, even in state proceedings, at least since the United States Supreme Court had determined that most of the guarantees in the federal Bill of Rights apply to the states by virtue of the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment-a process often referred to as incorporation. See U.S. Const., amend. XIV, § 1 (prohibiting state governments from depriving "any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law").
Before incorporation, state courts had no need to look beyond their state constitution or to consider which constitution to apply in a given case, because the federal constitution did not apply to state proceedings. State and federal courts treated the federal constitution as applying only to the federal government, with limited exceptions for when the federal constitution explicitly restricted actions by a state government, such as the prohibition on passing an ex post facto law. U.S. Const., Art. I, § 10, cl. 1. Thus, in
Barron
v.
Mayor & City Council
, 32 U.S. (7 Pet.) 243, 250,
Under this view, courts accepted that rights granted by states might vary from those granted under the federal constitution. As the court explained in
United States
v.
Cruikshank
,
Because the federal and state constitutions stood truly independent of one another, state courts looked to their own constitutions to determine the rights of individuals, and many states, including Connecticut, interpreted their state constitutions to provide less protection than the federal constitution. See, e.g.,
State
v.
Michael J
.,
But this dichotomy between state and federal rights began to erode as the United States Supreme Court
recognized that certain protections in the federal Bill of Rights might be considered an integral part of the due process guaranteed to state citizens by the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. The court did not incorporate the entire Bill of Rights at once but gradually incorporated many of
its provisions on a case-by-case basis over a period of several decades. The process began with
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Co
. v.
Chicago
,
The incorporation of constitutional rights through the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment progressed slowly thereafter, until the Warren Court
The rapid progress of incorporation in the 1960s arose principally from the court's concerns over the fairness of criminal proceedings when states did not guarantee their citizens the same protections in state proceedings that their citizens already enjoyed in federal court. For example, before the decision in
Mapp
, the federal exclusionary rule did not apply in state prosecutions. See
Mapp
v.
Ohio
, supra,
Concern for the undermining of federal constitutional protections led in significant part to the court's decision in
Mapp
to apply the fourth amendment exclusionary rule against the states, a decision that began the rapid acceleration of incorporation. In justifying its decision on practical grounds, the court observed that "a federal prosecutor [could] make no use of evidence illegally seized, but a [s]tate's attorney across the street could";
The solution to this problem, the court explained, was uniformity between the limitations on federal and state authorities in criminal proceedings. According to the court, "[f]ederal-state cooperation in the solution
of crime under constitutional standards will be promoted, if only by recognition of their now mutual obligation to respect the same fundamental criteria in their approaches. ... Denying shortcuts to only one of two cooperating law enforcement agencies tends naturally to breed legitimate suspicion of working arrangements whose results are equally tainted." (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.)
Mapp
v.
Ohio
, supra,
The incorporation surge of the 1960s forced state courts, for the first time, to consider the federal constitution in addition to any coordinate state constitutional provisions. Because many state constitutions had provided less protection than the federal constitution, litigants began to favor claims under the federal constitution, and the federal constitution took on a dominant role in the field of individual rights nationwide, especially the rights of criminal defendants. See, e.g., R. Range, note, "Reverse Silver Platter: Should Evidence That State Officials Obtained in Violation of a State Constitution Be Admissible in a Federal Criminal Trial?,"
To be sure, the rise of the federal constitution in state proceedings has not entirely sidelined state constitutions. During the 1970s, the United States Supreme Court adopted limitations and exceptions for many of the rights the court previously had expanded on and granted to state citizens in the 1960s. This curtailment led commentators and dissenting United States Supreme Court justices in the 1970s and 1980s to encourage state courts to reject that court's recent curtailments by finding greater protection for individual rights under state constitutions. See, e.g., R. Range, supra,
Although this call for action led to a reemergence of the state constitution as an independent source of rights; see R. Range, supra,
The primacy approach of putting the state constitution first stands in contrast to the primary position the federal constitution occupies in the field of individual rights, even in state proceedings, and thus assigns to the state constitution a role it no longer holds. See "Developments in the Law: The Interpretation of State Constitutional Rights," supra,
B
Given the respective roles of the federal and state constitutions following incorporation, I believe the better approach is one that resolves claims under the federal constitution first, and that looks to the state constitution when the federal constitution fails to provide the protections sought. This method-commonly called an interstitial approach-recognizes that the federal constitution sets minimum protections and calls for application of the state constitution only when necessary to supplement the protections of the federal constitution if the state might provide greater protection. See, e.g., M. Kelman, "Foreword: Rediscovering the State Constitutional Bill of Rights,"
Federal law marks a natural starting point for any claim made under both the federal and state constitutions. In most cases, the federal rule will be readily ascertainable. Because litigants have strongly favored federal claims, courts across the country apply the federal constitution and do so more often than we apply our
own state constitution. This has created an "expansive body of federal law" far more developed than state constitutional law on an overlapping topic. "Developments in the Law: The Interpretation of State Constitutional Rights," supra,
Starting with the federal constitution better allows us to articulate differences between the federal and state constitutions when they exist. When the state constitution provides protection not afforded by the federal constitution, certainly, we have a duty to enforce the state constitution. See, e.g.,
State
v.
Dukes
,
Moreover, analyzing a claim first under the federal constitution coincides with our mode of state constitutional interpretation, which requires us to consider federal law on the topic in any event. Federal constitutional jurisprudence, although not binding, provides persuasive authority for any interpretation or application of an analogous provision of our state constitution. See, e.g.,
State
v.
Linares
, supra,
Beginning with the federal constitution also helps to avoid unnecessary constitutional decision making. If the federal constitution provides relief in a given case, we have no need to consider the question separately under the state constitution. As a matter of judicial restraint, we commonly avoid addressing constitutional questions that are not necessary to our disposition. See, e.g.,
State
v.
Cofield
,
For the foregoing reasons, I would simplify our decision and decide it under the federal constitution, consistent with the Second Circuit's decision in Thomas . Because the majority has unnecessarily opted to resolve the case under our state constitution without first resolving the federal constitutional claim, I concur in the judgment only.
Article first, § 7, of the Connecticut constitution provides: "The people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers and possessions from unreasonable searches or seizures; and no warrant to search any place, or to seize any person or things, shall issue without describing them as nearly as may be, nor without probable cause supported by oath or affirmation."
The state appealed to the Appellate Court from the judgment of the trial court, and we transferred the appeal to this court pursuant to General Statutes § 51-199 (c) and Practice Book § 65-1.
The defendant also claims, as the trial court concluded, that the canine sniff of his residence violated the fourth amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. We recently have explained that when the issue presented is one of first impression under both the state and federal constitutions, it is appropriate to consider the state constitutional claim first, "turning to the federal claim only after determining that the appellant's state constitutional [challenge] will not succeed."
State
v.
Santiago
,
We note that the state makes no claim either that the Berlin police had a reasonable and articulable suspicion that the defendant's condominium unit contained marijuana or that such a level of suspicion would suffice to render the canine sniff lawful without a warrant predicated on probable cause.
As the court in
Caballes
explained, "[o]fficial conduct that does not compromise any legitimate interest in privacy is not a search subject to the [f]ourth [a]mendment .... [The court has] held that any interest in possessing contraband cannot be deemed legitimate, and thus ... governmental conduct that
only
reveals the possession of contraband compromises no legitimate privacy interest .... This is because the expectation that certain facts will not come to the attention of the authorities is not the same as an interest in privacy that society is prepared to consider reasonable .... In [
Place
, the court] treated a canine sniff by a [well trained narcotics detection] dog as
sui generis
because it discloses only the presence or absence of narcotics, a contraband item." (Citations omitted; emphasis in original; internal quotation marks omitted.)
Illinois
v.
Caballes
,
"[O]ur adoption of an analytical framework or methodology used under the federal constitution does not compel this court to reach the same outcome that a federal court might reach when the methodology is applied to a particular set of factual circumstances. Even when the state and [f]ederal [c]onstitutions contain the same [or similar] language and employ the same methodology to govern the interpretation and application of that language [as they do in the present case], the ultimate constitutional decision often will turn [on] a factual assessment of how society feels about certain matters or how society functions under various conditions .... In each instance it could matter greatly which society you are talking about: a privacy claim lacking the national consensus necessary to trigger federal constitutional protection might still enjoy local support strong enough to dictate state constitutional protection ...." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
State
v.
Joyce
,
As the United States Supreme Court has recently underscored, the fourth amendment protects against government infringement of an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy and also against the government's nonconsensual physical intrusion into a person's private property. See
Florida
v.
Jardines
, supra,
We note that, in
State
v.
Brown
,
Neither the language nor the history of article first, § 7, bears on our analysis. With respect to the latter consideration, we previously have observed that "the history of article first, § 7, sheds no light on the appropriate standard to be applied to a canine sniff because that investigative technique was unknown at the time our constitution was adopted in 1818."
State
v.
Waz
, supra,
In reaching its determination in
Thomas
, the Second Circuit relied principally on "the heightened privacy interest that an individual has in his dwelling place."
United States
v.
Thomas
,
Although the facts of
Jardines
are similar to the facts in the present case in certain respects, as we explain more fully hereinafter, they are also materially different in at least two important respects. First, the canine sniff in
Jardines
was conducted on the front porch of a single-family house; see
Florida
v.
Jardines
, supra,
In light of its determination that the police officers had exceeded the scope of their invitation to enter Jardines' property, the court concluded that it did not need to "decide whether the officers' investigation of Jardines' home [also] violated his expectation of privacy under
Katz
."
Florida
v.
Jardines
, supra,
See, e.g.,
United States
v.
Elliot
t
,
Several Connecticut cases support essentially the same proposition. See, e.g.,
State
v.
Pierre
,
The state further asserts that the rationale of the court in Caballes -which was decided after Kyllo -did not implicate the location of the canine sniff and alert; if it did, the state maintains, the court in Caballes "would have simply disregarded or distinguished Kyllo on the basis that the Kyllo search was of a home." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
For purposes of this appeal, we assume that drug sniffing dogs are adequately precise such that they do not yield anything more than de minimus rates of error. But see
Illinois
v.
Caballes
,
Hereinafter, all references in this opinion to
Jardines
are to the United States Supreme Court's decision in
Florida
v.
Jardines
, supra,
The state also refers us to
People
v.
Jones
,
The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, considering itself bound by squarely applicable First Circuit precedent, similarly concluded that the area in front of an apartment door in a multiunit building "was not a separate area ... subject to [the tenant's] exclusive control and thus [did] not constitute curtilage." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
United States
v.
Bain
,
We note that, in
State
v.
Williams
,
We also agree with the Seventh Circuit that, as a matter of policy, "[d]istinguishing
Jardines
based on the differences between the front porch of a stand-alone house and the closed hallways of an apartment building draws arbitrary lines."
United States
v.
Whitaker
,
As we have indicated; see footnote 4 of this opinion; the state does not contend that a lesser standard than probable cause applies to the canine sniff that we have identified as a search for purposes of article first, § 7.
See, e.g.,
State
v.
Zidel
,
Of course, whether the federal constitution definitively resolves the claim in the defendant's favor must be determined on a case-by-case basis. To conclude that it does in any given case, we must be able to say with a high degree of confidence that the United States Supreme Court, if presented with the federal constitutional claim, would decide it in favor of the defendant.
Although Justice Zarella agrees with this approach-that is, deciding constitutional claims under the state constitution when the issue has not been truly settled under the federal constitution-he nevertheless proceeds to explain why we should adopt the so-called "interstitial approach" to state constitutional adjudication and reject the so-called "primacy" approach. As Justice Zarella explains, under the interstitial approach, a court turns first to the federal constitutional claim, and only if the defendant cannot prevail on that claim does the court then consider the claim under the state constitution. Under the primacy approach, a court looks first to the state constitution and resorts to the federal constitution only if the defendant's state constitutional claim is unavailing. It is unclear to us why Justice Zarella advocates an interstitial approach even as he accepts the premise that a state constitutional claim is properly decided first when the federal constitutional issue remains unsettled. In any event, in our view, it is most sensible and practical simply to decide the constitutional claim under the federal constitution if the law thereunder is truly settled and the defendant prevails; if the law is not settled under the federal constitution, or if it is settled but in favor of the state, we then look first to the state constitution.
Of course, there are other sound reasons to decide state constitutional issues first unless the issue is truly settled under the federal constitution; see, e.g., 1 J. Friesen, State Constitutional Law: Litigating Individual Rights, Claims, and Defenses (4th Ed. 2006) §§ 1.01 [2] through 1.04, pp. 1-4 through 1-28; W. Horton, The Connecticut State Constitution (2d Ed. 2012) pp. 36-37; D. Braithwaite, supra,
Indeed, in her dissenting opinion, Justice Espinosa not only disagrees that the federal constitutional issue presented by this appeal is settled in favor of the defendant, but she suggests that Thomas was wrongly decided and concludes that the defendant cannot prevail under the federal constitution.
Numerous state courts have also rejected
Thomas
and noted that it has been the subject of recurring criticism. See, e.g.,
Nelson
v.
State
,
In fact, Justice Zarella acknowledges that Justice Espinosa, in her dissent, "has raised significant distinctions" between the issue presented in this case and the related issues decided by the United States Supreme Court in other cases. It is in large measure because of these "significant distinctions" that we cannot fairly say that the issue is truly settled under the federal constitution.
We acknowledge that, generally, Second Circuit precedent presumptively carries particular weight with this court when we are
deciding
an issue of federal law. E.g.,
Szewczyk
v.
Dept. of Social Services
,
We also disagree with Justice Zarella that an issue of federal constitutional interpretation is settled solely because the Second Circuit has decided it in a certain way. Because the United States Supreme Court is the final arbiter of the meaning and scope of the federal constitution, we cannot reasonably characterize a federal constitutional issue as settled unless we can confidently predict how the United States Supreme Court would resolve it. If we are unable to do so-and, as we explain more fully hereinafter, we certainly cannot make such a prediction in the present case-there simply is no persuasive reason to address the issue first under the federal constitution. Consequently, there is no justification for this court to entertain the fiction, advocated by Justice Zarella, that a federal constitutional question is settled merely because it is settled in the Second Circuit. Ironically, because Justice Zarella acknowledges that we do not blindly follow Second Circuit precedent, if we were to adopt his approach and first address any issue of federal constitutional interpretation that has been resolved by the Second Circuit, we would be creating the very problem that Justice Zarella seeks to avoid, namely, the possibility that this court would disagree with the Second Circuit's interpretation of a federal constitutional provision.
With respect to his repudiation of Justice Kagan's reliance on the privacy based rationale to support her determination that the conduct of the police in
Jardines
violated the fourth amendment, Justice Alito explained that he saw "no basis for concluding that the occupants of a dwelling have a reasonable expectation of privacy in odors that emanate from the dwelling and reach spots where members of the public may lawfully stand."
Florida
v.
Jardines
, supra,
The majority observes that the state has not argued that the police had a reasonable and articulable suspicion that the defendant was growing marijuana plants in his condominium unit, or claimed that if it had, that suspicion would have justified the dog sniff. The explanation is clear. It is the state's position that there was no search of the defendant's condominium unit, either under the fourth amendment of the federal constitution or article first, § 7, of the state constitution. Accordingly, the question of whether the police had a reasonable and articulable suspicion and whether such a level of belief would have been constitutionally sufficient was irrelevant to the state's argument.
Whether I would agree with Justice Espinosa's position under the state constitution is another matter, and one that I need not address in view of my reliance on the federal constitution.
The majority cites a number of decisions that originally criticized the decision in
Thomas
, but the criticism in those cases does not convince me to depart from that decision. Most significantly, each of these cases criticizing
Thomas
was decided before
Jardines
, and many were decided even before
Kyllo
. It is questionable whether, in light of
Jardines
, these courts would maintain their original criticism. For example, the Eighth Circuit concluded, before
Jardines
, that dog sniffs at apartment doors are not searches.
United States
v.
Scott
,
Thus, beginning with a federal constitutional analysis makes sense as a practical matter because any interpretation of our state constitution requires that we analyze the meaning of federal law in any event. See
State
v.
Geisler
,
Of course, this question does not arise when a party has made a claim under only the state constitution, which typically happens when the federal constitution clearly does not provide a basis for relief or when a party is seeking greater protection under the state constitution. See, e.g.,
State
v.
Skok
, supra, 318 Conn. at 701 and n.3,
The "Warren Court" signifies the group of judges that comprised the United States Supreme Court when Earl Warren served as Chief Justice.
Of course, state constitutions continue to apply exclusively in matters not addressed by the federal constitution and for those federal guarantees that the United States Supreme Court has applied to the states through the incorporation doctrine.
We should interpret our constitution differently from the federal constitution only when necessary to protect the rights of our citizens; otherwise, we risk unnecessarily encouraging a "reverse silver platter" problem-essentially the mirror image of the problem identified in
Mapp
. See R. Range, supra,
Dissenting Opinion
I disagree with the majority that the police conducted a search of the condominium unit in which the defendant, Dennis Kono, resided in violation of article first, § 7, of the Connecticut constitution by using a police dog to sniff in the shared hallway
of the condominium complex. In order for the majority's rationale to be persuasive-under either the federal or state constitutions-it must establish either one or both of the following propositions: (1) dogs are the equivalent of sophisticated sense enhancing technology, not available to the general public; see
Kyllo
v.
United States
,
In the present case, the police officers acted on information that the defendant was growing marijuana in his condominium unit. On the basis of that information, and with the permission of the property manager of the condominium complex where the defendant lived, they brought a police dog into the common hallway of the building in order to conduct a canine examination of that area.
The majority correctly observes that in determining whether the police have conducted a search under article first, § 7, of the state constitution, this court applies the same analytic framework that would be applied under the federal constitution. See
State
v.
Davis
,
Police dogs occupy a unique position in search and seizure jurisprudence. The United States Supreme Court has held that a dog sniff is "sui generis."
United States
v.
Place
,
The majority relies on
Kyllo
v.
United States
, supra,
An example of an area in which reasonable expectations of privacy have been reshaped by advances in technology is aerial surveillance. For example, in
Florida
v.
Riley
, supra,
There is nothing novel about drug sniffing dogs. Domesticated dogs have been a part of our society for centuries, and the power of the canine sense of smell is certainly no secret. Although this court, until now, had never weighed in on the question of when or whether a dog sniff constitutes a search, the court heard claims regarding dog sniffs more than twenty years ago. See
State
v.
Torres
,
Dogs, unlike technology, are not going to change. As previously noted, the United States Supreme Court has held that a dog sniff is "sui generis."
Moreover, although drug sniffing dogs are highly trained, there is no claim in the present case, nor has the majority contended, that only the police are able to train dogs to respond to particular odors with particular behaviors. Thus, even if a dog is a "device" akin to a thermal imaging device, there has been no showing that it is a device that is somehow unavailable to the general public. I would conclude, therefore, that Kyllo is inapplicable to the present case.
The federal decisions on which the majority relies to arrive at the opposite conclusion-that dogs should be treated like advanced technology for purposes of determining whether a procedure constituted a search that compromised a legitimate expectation of privacy-ignore the unique character of a dog sniff, and either predate
Jardines
or gloss over the fact that in
Jardines
, the majority declined to extend
Kyllo
to dog sniffs. Most significantly, the majority relies heavily on the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in
United States
v.
Thomas
,
I further observe that no dog sniff may be analyzed in a vacuum. This dog sniff occurred in the shared hallway of a multiunit building, not a single-family home. That fact is relevant to the defendant's reasonable expectation of privacy, which is analyzed under a very fact centered and common sense inquiry. When one lives in a unit that shares walls, floors and ceilings with other units, and shares the same hallway as others
in the building, it would be
unreasonable
to expect the same amount of privacy as that enjoyed in an independent dwelling place. This court has expressly recognized this principle: "Reasonable expectations of privacy are necessarily diminished in [multifamily] homes and [multiunit] buildings, by virtue of the presence in common areas of other tenants and their visitors ...." (Citations omitted.)
State
v.
Brown
,
I next consider whether the area of the shared hallway immediately adjacent to the door to the defendant's condominium unit constituted the curtilage of the unit, rendering the dog sniff a search pursuant to
Jardines
. The question is whether the area in front of the defendant's unit is akin to the front porch in
Jardines
. In
Jardines
, the officers walked onto the defendant's front porch with a drug sniffing dog, which sat at the base of the defendant's front door, indicating that it had detected one of the odors to which it had been trained
to respond.
Florida
v.
Jardines
, supra,
Understood properly, therefore,
Jardines
was not a case about a dog-it was a case about a front porch. The police officers exceeded the limited license enjoyed by the public to enter onto a front porch-the fact that the intrusion involved a dog was not significant. The majority explained that "[i]t is not the dog that is the problem, but the behavior that here involved use of the dog. We think a typical person would find it a cause for great alarm ... to find a stranger snooping about his front porch
with or without
a dog." (Citation
omitted; emphasis in original.)
"The curtilage area immediately surrounding a private house has long been given protection as a place where the occupants have a reasonable and legitimate expectation of privacy that society is prepared to accept."
Dow Chemical Co.
v.
United States,
supra, 476 U.S. at 235,
The United States Supreme Court has explained that "curtilage questions should be resolved with particular reference to four factors: the proximity of the area claimed to be curtilage to the home, whether the area is included within an enclosure surrounding the home, the nature of the uses to which the area is put, and the steps taken by the resident to protect the area from observation by people passing by. ... We do not suggest that combining these factors produces a finely tuned formula that, when mechanically applied, yields a 'correct' answer to all extent-of-curtilage questions. Rather, these factors are useful analytical tools only to the degree that, in any given case, they bear upon the centrally relevant consideration-whether the area in question is so intimately tied to the home itself that it should be placed under the home's 'umbrella' of [f]ourth [a]mendment protection." (Citations omitted; footnote omitted.)
whether society would recognize the particular area claimed as within the curtilage of the home; and (2) whether the defendant has manifested a subjective expectation of privacy in that area." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
State
v.
Ryder
,
Applying these principles to the present case, I conclude that the area immediately outside the defendant's condominium unit did not constitute the curtilage of his unit. Nothing about the common hallway, even in the area outside his door, can be said to "[harbor] the intimate activity associated with the sanctity of a man's home and the privacies of life." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
United States
v.
Dunn,
supra,
Under these facts, I conclude that the area in the shared hallway immediately outside the defendant's condominium unit did not constitute curtilage. Accordingly, Jardines is inapplicable to the present case, and the dog sniff did not constitute a search, either under the fourth amendment of the federal constitution or under article first, § 7, of the state constitution.
I respectfully dissent.
The majority implies that
Thomas
does less to settle the fourth amendment question before us because
Thomas
was decided "many years before the seminal cases of [
Florida
v.
Jardines
, --- U.S. ----,
