Court: OK to Arrest in Home Without Warrant….if a DUI
Posted by Lawrence Taylor on June 1st, 2006The latest victory in the War on Drunk Driving…and on our Constitution:
Justices: Police Can Arrest DUI Suspectsin Homes With No Warrant
San Francisco, CA. June 1 – Police may enter Californians’ homes without warrants to arrest those suspected of driving under the influence, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a case testing the scope of the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
The 6-1 decision follows similar rulings in about a dozen other states.
A dissenting justice said the majority handed authorities a "free pass" to unlawfully enter private homes and arrest people without warrants.
Under the Fourth Amendment, authorities are prohibited from entering a home and making an arrest without a warrant unless so-called "exigent" circumstances are present. Those include "hot pursuit" of a fleeing felon, imminent destruction of evidence and the risk of danger to the police or other persons inside or outside of a house, among others…
A state court of appeal tossed the conviction, saying Thompson’s constitutional rights were violated. The Supreme Court reversed, saying the lower court misapplied search-and-seizure precedent.
Santa Barbara County prosecutor Gerald McC. Franklin said the decision means there is no "absolute bar into entering a house without a warrant for the purpose of arresting somebody for driving under the influence of alcohol."
‘Still think I’ve been exaggerating about "The DUI Exception to the Constitution"?
How long does it take to get a warrant in CA? If the suspect has a measurable blood alcohol level that may be incriminating, I think the “imminent destruction” of that evidence, i.e. waiting around for a warrant, is a weak argument at best.
Warrants can normally be obtained fairly quickly, sometimes telephonically. Granted, a weak argument for the prosecution…but we are commonly dealing with essentially political issues in the DUI field, not legal ones.