For Immediate Release: June 24, 2021
Victory: Supreme Court Rules That ‘Hot Pursuit’ Over Driver’s Loud Music Doesn’t Justify Warrantless Home Invasion
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a victory for the Fourth Amendment right of homeowners to be protected against warrantless home invasions, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that “hot pursuit” of persons suspected of minor offenses does not alone justify a warrantless home invasion by law enforcement.
The Court’s opinion in Lange v. State of California found that the Fourth Amendment did not allow police to engage in “hot pursuit” of a suspect over a dubious traffic infraction, following a driver into his garage and questioning him without a warrant in order to issue him a citation for honking his horn repeatedly and blasting his music while driving. In their amicus brief in Lange, Rutherford Institute attorneys argued that the sanctity of the home must prevail over any interest police might have in engaging in “hot pursuit” of citizens suspected of committing nonviolent misdemeanors.
Affiliate attorneys Michael Kimberly, Ethan Townsend, and Brett Meyerhoff of McDermott, Will & Emery LLP in Washington, D.C. assisted The Rutherford Institute in advancing the arguments in Lange.
"Police have been given free rein to pull anyone over for a variety of dubious reasons, resulting in drivers being stopped for windows that are too heavily tinted, for driving too fast, driving too slow, failing to maintain speed, improper lane changes, distracted driving, screeching a car’s tires, and leaving a parked car door open for too long,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “To allow police to pursue drivers and carry out warrantless invasions of their homes merely for daring to play their car music too loudly or honking their horns flies in the face of everything the Fourth Amendment is supposed to protect.”
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