Supreme Court Restricts Police Powers To Enter A Home Without A Warrant

[Calista241]

Source: NPR

The U.S. Supreme court ruled Wednesday that police cannot enter a home without a warrant when pursuing someone for a minor crime.

By a largely unanimous vote, the court declared that police violated the rights of a California man by pursuing him into his garage for allegedly playing loud music while driving down a deserted two-lane highway late at night.

Writing for the court majority, Justice Elena Kagan said that police had no right to enter the man's home without a warrant for such a trivial offense.

The court's ruling came in the case of Arthur Lange, who was playing loud music in his car late one night, at one point honking his horn several times. A California highway patrol officer, believing Lange was violating a noise ordinance, followed him and when the motorist slowed to enter his driveway, the cop put on his flashing lights.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2021/06/23/999913516/supreme-court-restricts-police-powers-to-enter-a-home-without-a-warrant

[smb]

1. WTF Is "A 'Largely' Unanimous Vote"?? nt

[Calista241]

2. The vote was unanimous but justices had different opinions with different legal reasonings.

[Goonch]

4. ;-{)

[Harker]

8. 9-0 is almost pretty much nearly unanimous.

I guess.

[JohnSJ]

9. Lol

[jimfields33]

3. This case was crap to begin with

Driving down a deserted highway with loud music and a few honks resulted in the cops find him guilty of a noise ordinance? Good grief. If it was in a residential area maybe, but on an open road? Ridiculous. Serious slow night for the cop.

[malthaussen]

5. He didn't like the tunes.

Everybody's a critic.

-- Mal

[jimfields33]

6. True.

[appmanga]

12. It was...

...a dark desert highway, with cool wind in his hair. And the smell of colitas rising up in the air.

[Shrike47]

7. The cop figured he was drunk and used the noise as a cause to stop him and interrogate him.

[Ligyron]

11. Probably

I’ve been a bit surprised at some of the Supreme Court’s halfway decent rulings lately.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

10. Good

[IronLionZion]

13. They should strike down no-knock warrants next

considering how many times they have entered the wrong home, damaged property, and hurt or killed innocent bystanders.

[jimfields33]

14. I 100 percent agree

I also think warrants should only be given from 9-5. It’s ridiculous to wake the entire family at 6 am for something besides murder.

[IronLionZion]

15. Entering homes is dangerous for everyone involved including the officers.

It's way too likely for mistakes or thinking someone has a weapon or shooting the wrong person or even for the sleeping residents to wake up thinking it's a burglary and shoot who they believe are armed robbers.