The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously protected Americans' Fourth Amendment rights against President Joe Biden's Administration in a new ruling, a report says.
The Blaze reported that the Supreme Court "unanimously sides against the Biden admin" in so far as the Fourth Amendment rights are concerned when it comes to the warrantless search of a person's home. The Blaze pointed out that the Supreme Court rejected the argument of Biden's Administration when it voted 9-0 on the case Caniglia v. Strom on Monday.
According to The Blaze, Biden's Administration urged the court to uphold the warrantless search done by local police on Edward Caniglia as legal. The police had used the 1973 "community caretaking exception" on the Fourth Amendment for warrant requirement as basis for confiscating the firearms in the home of Edward Caniglia in Rhode Island.
The 1973 Supreme Court case on "community caretaking functions" involved police officers confiscating a gun located in an impounded car even without warrant. However, the Supreme Court through one of its judges, Justice Clarence Thomas, pointed out in a majority opinion on the case that the "community caretaking functions" are limited to public places only and do not include private residences in its scope.
"What is reasonable for vehicles is different from what is reasonable for homes. Cady acknowledged as much, and this Court has repeatedly 'declined to expand the scope of...exceptions to the warrant requirement to permit warrantless entry into the home,'" Thomas said.
The Supreme Court said that the "unanimous decision" on the Caniglia v. Strom case was a reminder that "there is in fact no place like home."
"The Supreme Court released its opinion in Caniglia v. Strom, which unanimously held that a lower court's extension of Cady v. Dombrowski's 'community caretaking' exception into the home defied the logic and holding of Cady, as well as, violated the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement," the SCOTUS Blog said.
"With the court's unanimity in Caniglia, the home remains the most sacred space under the Fourth Amendment; its sanctity literally houses its privilege. Sans warrant, exigency or consent, governmental search and seizure within it is unconstitutional," it stressed.
Caniglia, as per the SCOTUS Blog, had an argument with his wife in 2015 that led to him offering her one of his unloaded guns in an appeal to "put him out of his misery." The wife threatened to call 911 before leaving Caniglia to sleep in a nearby hotel overnight. When she returned, she called the police with a request to have her husband undergo a wellness check. Caniglia agreed to undergo the psychiatric evaluation with the police only after the officers agreed they will not take his guns.
However, the police deceived the couple for after Caniglia left, they entered their home and took the guns along with the ammunition. Caniglia then sued the officers who violated his Fourth Amendment rights but the 1st Circuit Court sided with the police on the basis of the 1973 "community caretaking" case.
A petition for a writ of certiorari was filed in August 10, 2020 on the case and discussions in the Supreme Court began in March 24 prior to the final opinion on the case being released on Monday.
