The maxim “a man’s house is his castle” is one of the oldest and most deeply rooted principles in Anglo-American jurisprudence. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case that may test how much protection the Fourth Amendment truly provides the home (article available here).
In Caniglia v. Strom, the issue is whether officers may rely on the “community caretaking” exception to the warrant requirement when conducting a warrantless search of and seizure within a home.
What sort of emergency allows police to enter your home without a warrant was a big issue before the high court. The court's imagination seemed endless, as the justices presented hypotheticals that involved rescuing everything from screaming babies to cats in a tree to a water-logged Van Gogh painting.
The actual case before the court involved a heated argument between a long-married couple, Edward and Kim Caniglia. He brought out a gun and told her to shoot him to put him out of his "misery." Then after he left the house, she hid the gun, and spent the night in a motel. The next morning, she asked police to escort her home because was afraid he might have harmed himself.
Police found the husband on the front porch, and sent him for a psychological evaluation. Later that day, doctors concluded he was not a threat to himself or others and released him. In the meantime, police had confiscated his guns and ammunition. So he sued, alleging an illegal seizure and search of his home. The lower courts ruled that police could enter the home and under the so-called the community care-taking exception to the Constitution's warrant requirement.