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SCOTUS 9-0 that a “community caretaking” exception didn't justify LEO warrantless search & seizure of guns from the home of a person believed suicidal Login/Join 
Info Guru
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posted
Link to ruling, opinion written by Justice Thomas:

Caniglia v Strom

https://www.supremecourt.gov/o...0pdf/20-157_8mjp.pdf



“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
- John Adams
 
Posts: 29408 | Location: In the red hinterlands of Deep Blue VA | Registered: June 29, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Thank you
Very little
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So what's the end result, will this change red flag laws...
 
Posts: 25788 | Location: Gunshine State | Registered: November 07, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by HRK:
So what's the end result, will this change red flag laws...


Here is the summary of the case:

quote:
During an argument with his wife, petitioner Edward Caniglia placed a handgun on the dining room table and asked his wife to “shoot [him] and get it over with.” His wife instead left the home and spent the night at a hotel. The next morning, she was unable to reach her husband by phone, so she called the police to request a welfare check. The responding officers accompanied Caniglia’s wife to the home, where they encountered Caniglia on the porch. The officers called an ambulance based on the belief that Caniglia posed a risk to himself or others. Caniglia agreed to go to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation on the condition that the officers not confiscate his firearms. But once Caniglia left, the officers located and seized his weapons. Caniglia sued, claiming that the officers had entered his home and seized him and his firearms without a warrant in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The District Court granted summary judgment to the officers. The First Circuit affirmed, extrapolating from the Court’s decision in Cady v. Dombrowski, 413 U. S. 433, a theory that the officers’ removal of Caniglia and his firearms from his home was justified by a “community caretaking exception” to the warrant requirement.

Held: Neither the holding nor logic of Cady justifies such warrantless searches and seizures in the home. Cady held that a warrantless search of an impounded vehicle for an unsecured firearm did not violate the Fourth Amendment. In reaching this conclusion, the Court noted that the officers who patrol the “public highways” are often called to discharge noncriminal “community caretaking functions,” such as responding to disabled vehicles or investigating accidents. 413 U. S., at 441. But searches of vehicles and homes are constitutionally different, as the Cady opinion repeatedly stressed. Id., at 439, 440– 442. The very core of the Fourth Amendment’s guarantee is the right of a person to retreat into his or her home and “there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion.” Florida v. Jardines, 569 U. S. 1, 6. A recognition of the existence of “community caretaking” tasks, like rendering aid to motorists in disabled vehicles, is not an open-ended license to perform them anywhere.

Pp. 3–4. 953 F. 3d 112, vacated and remanded.


I don't think this addresses red flag laws, I'm sure that's a whole other can of worms.



“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
- John Adams
 
Posts: 29408 | Location: In the red hinterlands of Deep Blue VA | Registered: June 29, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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From what I understand the state will need to get a warrant. They (the state) were asking for permission to use the "caretaker" exception to the 4th amendment so they could go in your house and grab property without probable cause of a crime. This basically says no, you need a warrant to do that.
 
Posts: 10647 | Registered: June 13, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Excellent!


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Posts: 3625 | Location: Cary, NC | Registered: February 26, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Supreme Court Unanimously Strikes Down Warrantless ‘Caretaking’ Firearm Searches

The Supreme Court has unanimously struck down warrantless so-called “community caretaking” searches of homes for firearms in a decision handed down today. In Caniglia v. Strom, Rhode Island police responded to a wellness check request by a man’s wife and confiscated his firearms.

The police hung the legality of their warrant-free search on the “community caretaking” exception that allows them to search a vehicle that they’ve impounded. But that exception has never been extended to homes. The plaintiff had to sue the police department to get his guns back.

The BidenHarris administration argued for the extension of the exception to residences which would have been a dangerously broad expansion of law enforcement’s ability to search your property without ever going before a judge.

Today, however, the Supreme Court signaled — in no uncertain terms — that they aren’t interested in poking a huge hole in the Fourth Amendment.


Read More: TTAG
 
Posts: 10647 | Registered: June 13, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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That surprises me - especially Roberts and Kagan.
 
Posts: 54510 | Location: Tucson Arizona | Registered: January 16, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by nhtagmember:
That surprises me - especially Roberts and Kagan.


They're not going to use what they have on Roberts unless he is the swing vote in THEIR favor.


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Posts: 3782 | Location: W. Central NH | Registered: October 05, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by Blackmore:
They're not going to use what they have on Roberts unless he is the swing vote in THEIR favor.
Keep that silly conspiracy crap out of this forum, please.
 
Posts: 111835 | Registered: January 20, 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by HRK:
So what's the end result, will this change red flag laws...


Did you read the opinion? It is unanimous and two or three pages long. The search of the home was not pursuant to any red flag laws and no guns were seized under any red flag law, so they were not implicated in this case in any way.

If this surprises anyone as to Roberts, it is because you are just mad at him about Obamacare, or whatever. This is "on-brand" for him. He was in the majority on Heller, for example. It doesn't surprise me as to any of them, as this is good solid, 4th amendment jurisprudence which says to go into someone's house and search, you have to have a damn good reason. There was no warrant, there was no consent, and there was no exigent circumstance. The exceptions for searches of cars are not the same, because cars are not houses. The First Circuit's "community caretaking" rule was found to be bullshit. The left is no more in favor of allowing illegal searches than is the right. Kagan won't make a special "yeah, but we were looking for guns" exception. It is more likely that a law-and-order righty judge might bless such an act than the average lefty, although I am not sure we have any of those on the Supremes now.

Alito wrote a concurrence to note some potential situations where things might (or might not be) different. He is issue-spotting, in other words. He suggested there may be some non-criminal-investigation entry into a house that may pass muster in the future, without (of course) deciding what that might be. Alito also mentioned that red-flag laws may be implicated in some other case, but not this one. So maybe Alito is a little more law-and-order.

This decision is entirely unsurprising, although welcome news, of course.

And because this is a short opinion, with short, non-technical reasoning it is readable by anyone. (The several concurrences are longer than the actual opinion, but are still short.) I urge everyone to read it. It gives you some insight into the justices' thinking and how they write opinions.




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Posts: 53514 | Location: Texas | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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^^^^^^^^^^
Thank for taking the time to explain in simple terms.
 
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quote:
Originally posted by parabellum:
quote:
Originally posted by Blackmore:
They're not going to use what they have on Roberts unless he is the swing vote in THEIR favor.
Keep that silly conspiracy crap out of this forum, please.


Will do


Harshest Dream, Reality
 
Posts: 3782 | Location: W. Central NH | Registered: October 05, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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The only thing that surprises me is that this was 9-0.
 
Posts: 675 | Registered: August 23, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by sjp:
The only thing that surprises me is that this was 9-0.


It shouldn’t. This was a no brainer and the First DCA clearly went out on a limb. The clear error is evident by how short this opinion is. The community caretaking exception applies only in bery narrow circumstances not present in this case and the case relied on by the First is clearly distinguishes the proper use of the doctrine and the improper use, such as in a home. This was accepted by SCOTUS because it was a single issue limited only to the community caretaking doctrine in a case with zero potential criminal implications. There is simply nothing to see here.

Officers can still seize guns from a home with consent, warrant, or exigent circumstances, consistent with every other Fourth Amendment case out there.
 
Posts: 887 | Location: Florida | Registered: June 20, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Jeeez. Three separate opinions to make clear what the Court was not saying, and did not say in the majority opinion anyway, for a 9-0 decision that was neatly dealt with in the just under four pages of the majority opinion in the first place. Talk about a bunch of nattering little old ladies with a bad case of cabin fever!
 
Posts: 27344 | Location: Deep in the heart of the brush country, and closing on that #&*%!?! roadrunner. Really. | Registered: February 05, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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A good decision. A case can be made for separating a crazy person from their weapons, but now without due process and an order of the court


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Posts: 4384 | Location: Florida Panhandle | Registered: September 27, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by jhe888:
Did you read the opinion? It is unanimous and two or three pages long.

If this surprises anyone as to Roberts, it is because you are just mad at him about Obamacare, or whatever.



*Busted* I didn't read it.
Thanks for redirecting my attention; I'll read it tonight.\


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Posts: 16487 | Location: Florida | Registered: June 23, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by HayesGreener:
A good decision. A case can be made for separating a crazy person from their weapons, but now without due process and an order of the court


An Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPOs) (what “Red Flag Laws” create) continue as non-adversarial hearings where a petitioner need only expose that the defendant in some way makes the petitioner fear for their personal safety or the safety of another. The petitioner needs also to assert that the defendant owns one or more guns or rounds of ammunition. Then the magistrate or court can then issue an ERPO ordering the defendants guns and/or ammunition to be seized by the police. The defendant does not even need to be made aware of the hearing or the order.

So, be clear: this decision in no way affects ERPOs.





Nice is overrated

"It's every freedom-loving individual's duty to lie to the government."
Airsoftguy, June 29, 2018
 
Posts: 33111 | Location: Loudoun County, Virginia | Registered: May 17, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by jhe888:
If this surprises anyone as to Roberts, it is because you are just mad at him about Obamacare, or whatever. This is "on-brand" for him.
Perhaps, but given his absolutely ridiculous and inexcusable behavior of late on the cases you noted as well as others, its not hard to understand why people might second guess he'd vote against the constitution/law again. And Kagan, she simply stuck one of her stubby fingers in the air, determined there were eight votes going one way on this, and voted accordingly. The emptiest suit to sit on SCOTUS in a lifetime.

Regardless of all that, it is encouraging to see a unanimous vote supporting the fourth amendment and rule of law.


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Guns are awesome because they shoot solid lead freedom. Every man should have several guns. And several dogs, because a man with a cat is a woman. Kurt Schlichter
 
Posts: 33845 | Location: Orlando, FL | Registered: April 30, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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It’s nice to see that both wings of the court can decide that some lower court and/ or state law was so ridiculous that the had to pimp slap it down. Would be nice to have the lower court or state legislature that pushed it that far get ridiculed. Especially the particular legislator that wrote a law so terrible and unconstitutional and all other lawmakers that voted for it, that it was kicked back 9-zip.
 
Posts: 5311 | Location: Florida Panhandle  | Registered: November 23, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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