Published on: Monday, May 17, 2021

In a unanimous opinion in Caniglia v. Strom Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against police who seized a man’s guns without a warrant while he was in the hospital for a suicide evaluation. Previous coverage here.

Police cannot justify the warrantless search and seizure based on the “community caretaking” exception to the Fourth Amendment, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court.

The case was a challenge by Edward Caniglia, who retrieved an unloaded gun during an argument with his wife, put it on the table and said, “Why don’t you just shoot me and get me out of my misery.” Caniglia’s wife ended up spending the night at a motel. When she called her husband the next day, the wife was unable to reach him. She called police in Cranston, Rhode Island, for a wellness check. Caniglia agreed to go to the hospital but only after police allegedly promised that they wouldn’t confiscate his firearms. Police entered Caniglia’s home and took two guns.

The U.S. Court of Appeals For the First Circuit ruled against Caniglia, ruling that the community caretaking exception applies to homes and cars. The Supreme Court disagreed. The appeals court’s community caretaking rule “goes beyond anything this court has recognized,” the Supreme Court wrote. “What is reasonable for vehicles is different from what is reasonable for homes."