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The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that police cannot enter a home without a warrant when prosecuting someone for a minor crime. Jose Luis Magana/AP Hide caption
Toggle caption Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press
The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that police cannot enter a home without a warrant when prosecuting someone for a minor crime.
Jose Luis Magana/AFP
The US Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that police cannot enter a home without a warrant when prosecuting someone for a minor crime.
Through a largely unanimous vote, the court declared that police had violated the rights of a California man by stalking him in his garage for allegedly playing loud music while driving down a deserted two-lane highway late at night.
Judge Elena Kagan, writing for the majority of the court, said the police had no right to enter the man’s home without a warrant for such a petty crime.
The court ruling came in the case of Arthur Lange, who was playing loud music in his car late one night and on one occasion blew his horn several times. A patrol officer followed him onto the California highway, thinking Lange was violating the noise law, and when the motorist slowed to enter his lane, the officer put on flashing lights.
Lange, who later said he did not notice the police car, drove into his garage. The officer, in a “hot pursuit,” got out of his car and put his foot under the locked garage door sensor to force the door to open again. He said that he did not have a warrant to enter the house, but that as soon as he entered, he smelled the smell of liquor on Lang’s breath and arrested him, not only for a noise violation, but also for driving under the influence.
Lange appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, arguing that the officer had no right to enter his home without a warrant and that DUI evidence had been illegally obtained.
The Supreme Court has long ruled that police may conduct a search without warrant when prosecuting a fugitive. The question in Lange’s case was whether police were free to do the same when pursuing someone suspected of a minor crime such as playing loud music.
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