{"id":48445,"date":"2021-05-17T11:43:25","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T16:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=48445"},"modified":"2021-07-04T09:26:04","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T14:26:04","slug":"scotus-community-caretaking-function-didnt-permit-entry-into-unoccupied-home-to-secure-firearms-when-occupant-left-at-request-of-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=48445","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUS: Community caretaking function didn’t permit entry into unoccupied home to secure firearms when occupant left at request of police"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The community caretaking function didn\u2019t permit a warrantless entry into defendant\u2019s home to secure his firearms after he left the home without them to get psychiatric help. He also asked that his guns not be seized when he left the house. \u201cThe very core of the Fourth Amendment\u2019s guarantee is the right of a person to retreat into his or her home and \u2018there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion.\u2019 Florida v. Jardines, 569 U.S. 1, 6. A recognition of the existence of \u2018community caretaking\u2019 tasks, like rendering aid to motorists in disabled vehicles, is not an open-ended license to perform them anywhere.\u201d Caniglia v. Strom<\/a>, 20\u2013157, 2021 U.S. LEXIS 2582 (U.S. May 17, 2021). The syllabus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

During an argument with his wife, petitioner Edward Caniglia placed a handgun on the dining room table and asked his wife to \u201cshoot [him] and get it over with.\u201d 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\u2019s 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\u2019s decision in Cady v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433, a theory that the officers\u2019 removal of Caniglia and his firearms from his home was justified by a \u201ccommunity caretaking exception\u201d to the warrant requirement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cpublic highways\u201d are often called to discharge noncriminal \u201ccommunity caretaking functions,\u201d 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\u2013442. The very core of the Fourth Amendment\u2019s guarantee is the right of a person to retreat into his or her home and \u201cthere be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion.\u201d Florida v. Jardines, 569 U.S. 1, 6. A recognition of the existence of \u201ccommunity caretaking\u201d tasks, like rendering aid to motorists in disabled vehicles, is not an open-ended license to perform them anywhere. Pp. 3\u20134.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

953 F. 3d 112, vacated and remanded.
THOMAS, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court. ROBERTS, C. J., filed a concurring opinion, in which BREYER, J., joined. ALITO, J., and KAVANAUGH, J., filed concurring opinions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/td>SCOTUSblog<\/a>: In unanimous Fourth Amendment ruling, a reminder that there is, in fact, no place like home<\/a> <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The community caretaking function didn\u2019t permit a warrantless entry into defendant\u2019s home to secure his firearms after he left the home without them to get psychiatric help. He also asked that his guns not be seized when he left the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-caretaking-function"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48445"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48955,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48445\/revisions\/48955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}