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FILE \u2013 The Supreme Court has just scheduled arguments for an important case on warrantless searches \u2026 [+] There are some limited exceptions to this right. There is an \u201cexigent circumstances\u201d exception. If a police officer looks through a home\u2019s window and sees a person about to stab another person, the officer can burst through the door to prevent the attack. There is also the \u201cemergency aid\u201d exception. If the officer looked through the same window and saw the resident collapsing from an apparent heart attack, the officer could run into the house to administer aid. Neither of these cases violates the Fourth Amendment and few would argue that it should be otherwise.<\/p>\n However, there is a broader cousin to these exceptions called the \u201ccommunity caretaking\u201d exception. It derives from a case in which the police took a gun out of the trunk of an impounded vehicle without first obtaining a warrant. The Supreme Court held that there is a community caretaking exception to the Fourth Amendment\u2019s warrant requirement because police perform \u201ccommunity caretaking functions, totally divorced from the detection, investigation, or acquisition of evidence relating to the violation of a criminal statute.” The Court held that police activity in furtherance of these functions does not violate the Fourth Amendment as long as it is executed in a \u201creasonable\u201d manner.<\/p>\n Note that, unlike the first two exceptions, this one is not limited to immediate emergencies. In the Supreme Court case just described there was only a general concern that vandals might eventually break into the impounded car and steal any weapons that were in the trunk. So the community care exception is far broader than the other two.<\/p>\n Also, all three exceptions allow warrantless searches so long as the police officer acted \u201creasonably.\u201d That is one of the easiest constitutional standards to meet and is a significantly lower standard than \u201cprobable cause,\u201d which is required for a warrant. As long as an officer\u00a0might<\/em> reasonably think that a warrantless search will alleviate a danger to the community, the search is considered constitutional.<\/p>\n There is a vigorous debate about whether the community care exception can apply to searches of a person\u2019s home as well as of their car. Vehicles have always had less Fourth Amendment protection than homes, which are considered a person\u2019s most private sphere. Federal courts have been divided on this question and the Supreme Court has not ruled on it until now.<\/p>\n
ASSOCIATED PRESS<\/p><\/div>The Fourth Amendment right against warrantless searches of a person\u2019s home is a pillar of Americans\u2019 constitutional liberties. Before a police officer or any other government official can enter your home, they must show a judge that they have probable cause that they will discover specific evidence of a crime.<\/p>\n