In a rare moment of collective wisdom and unity, the Supreme Court actually defended the civil liberties guaranteed in the Constitution.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that warrantless gun confiscation from Americans’ homes is unconstitutional, voting unanimously on the side of a Rhode Island man whose firearms were taken by law enforcement without a warrant after his wife expressed concerns that he might hurt himself.
According to Caniglia v Strom, a lower court had previously determined that police confiscating the guns without a warrant fell under the Fourth Amendment’s “community caretaking” exception, but a 9-0 vote from the nation’s top court struck down that ruling.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the unanimous opinion for the Supreme Court, stating that law enforcement can execute “many civic tasks in modern society,” but there is “not an open-ended license to perform them anywhere.”
“The very core of the Fourth Amendment,” Thomas wrote, is the “right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable search and seizure.”
Some exceptions to the 4th Amendment do exist, including “exigent circumstances,” Forbes reported. For instance, if an officer sees an individual about to shoot another person through the window of a home, that officer has the right to enter the home to prevent the attack.
…….In the case, Mr. Caniglia and his wife were arguing when he put an unloaded gun on their table and said, “shoot me now and get it over with.” Following the argument, Caniglia’s wife called the non-emergency police line, leading to a visit from law enforcement. The police convinced Mr. Caniglia to go to the hospital for psychological evaluation, despite disagreeing that his behavior was “abnormal” or “agitated.”
While Mr. Caniglia was on his way to the hospital, his wife told the police that he had two pistols in the home, at which point the officers searched the home without a warrant; however, Mrs. Caniglia couldn’t provide legal consent because the police lied, telling her that Mr. Caniglia had consented to the seizure of his firearms.
The officers subsequently located and confiscated the two handguns, prompting Mr. Caniglia to sue the police for allegedly violating his 4th Amendment rights.
Some exceptions to the 4th Amendment do exist, including “exigent circumstances,” Forbes reported. For instance, if an officer sees an individual about to shoot another person through the window of a home, that officer has the right to enter the home to prevent the attack.
Another exception – the one on which this case was based – is called “community caretaking.” The Supreme Court previously determined that police can bypass the warrant requirement to perform “community caretaking functions, totally divorced from the detection, investigation, or acquisition of evidence relating to the violation of a criminal statute,” noting a situation when police took a gun from the trunk of an impounded vehicle without a warrant.
“In reaching this conclusion, the Court noted that the officers who patrol the ‘public highways’ are often called to discharge noncriminal ‘community caretaking functions,’ such as responding to disabled vehicles or investigating accidents. But searches of vehicles and homes are constitutionally different, as the Cady opinion repeatedly stressed,” Thomas wrote in the court’s opinion.
The 4th Amendment has been repeatedly trampled by weaponized government agencies against political opponents. Obama’s abuse of power, in particular, was unprecedented. It’s not just the government, private omnipresent companies like Google are doing the same thing. They collaborate with government agencies in exchange for political favors.
The erosion of America’s civil and personal liberties has taken on evil proportions. Cops in Aurora Colorado arrested 40 innocent people during a roundup to find a bank robber.
By the way, the SCOTUS effectively scuttled the 4th Amendment in Indiana before the Governor retaliated with a law that allows Hoosiers to defend themselves against illegal entry by cops.
The COVIDIOCY Police State ran roughshod over the Constitution with a jackbooted attack on citizens. Businesses and churches were forcibly closed and people were arrested for being outside.
The line between security and liberty has been crossed. It’s up to the citizens of America to kick their asses back over that line.
Related posts:
https://sfcmac.com/2nd-and-4th-amendment-alert-scotus-will-decide-whether-cops-can-enter-your-home-without-a-warrant-to-seize-firearms/
https://sfcmac.com/federal-judge-nsas-blanket-surveillance-violates-4th-amendment/
https://sfcmac.com/scotus-follows-indianas-scuttle-of-the-fourth-amendment/
https://sfcmac.com/underreported-item-from-the-boston-bombing-swat-teams-trampled-all-over-4th-amendment-while-searching-for-terrorists/