Supreme Court will decide when police don't need warrant to enter home in emergency
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether police must have probable cause of an emergency to enter a home without a warrant or whether some lower level of suspicion suffices.
The Supreme Court will hear the case of Montana man William Trevor Case, who was shot by officers with the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Police Department in Anaconda, Montana, after they entered his home in September 2021.
Police came to the home after they received a call from Case’s ex-girlfriend, who said he threatened suicide after an argument on the phone and threatened to harm officers if they were called. She heard a “pop” at the end of the call and heard nothing more afterward.
Police officers waited about 40 minutes to enter the home because they feared that Case was attempting “suicide by cop.”
One officer who entered the home saw a “dark object” near Case’s waist and fired his gun, striking Case in the abdomen and arm. A gun was later found in a laundry basket near Case.
Case was later charged with assaulting a police officer. He filed motions to suppress evidence and toss the charge, which were denied. He was convicted in December 2022.
At issue is the legal standard of proof needed under the exigent circumstances exception to the warrant requirement in emergency situations.
Courts are split on whether probable cause is required under the 2006 Supreme Court case Brigham City v. Stuart, according to Case’s cert petition. The decision said officers entering a home in an emergency situation must have “an objectively reasonable basis for believing that an occupant is seriously injured or imminently threatened with such injury.”
The Montana Supreme Court ruled in an August 2024 decision that requiring probable cause of an emergency is “unwieldy and risks grave consequences for individuals in need of care.” The state supreme court ruled that the proper standard is for police to have some “objective, specific and articulable facts from which an experienced officer would suspect that a citizen is in need of help or is in peril.”
Other courts use a similar standard requiring only a reasonable belief that a person inside the home is in immediate need of aid or protection, the cert petition says.
The case is Case v. State of Montana.
Publications covering the cert grant include SCOTUSblog and Law.com.
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