The United States Supreme Court has decided the case of Lange v. California, holding that the police may not automatically enter a fleeing misdemeanor suspect’s home. This decision is significant because police have frequently justified the entry into a defendant’s home on the basis that the suspect ran away from the police and they needed to enter the home in “hot pursuit.” This decision now restricts law enforcement and potentially only allows an officer to pursue a fleeing misdemeanor suspect into his home when there is a valid law enforcement emergency.

In determining whether a claimed emergency is legitimate, courts must now apply a totality of the circumstances approach to determine whether the officer was justified in entering a misdemeanor suspect’s home without a warrant. Further, it should be emphasized, that this decision only applies to misdemeanor cases. The police still can often enter a fleeing felony suspect’s home without a warrant.   

Lange v. California

The defendant drove past a California highway patrol officer while playing his music very loudly and repeatedly honking his horn. The officer began to follow the defendant and then eventually activated his overhead lights to signal to the defendant that he should pull over. When the officer activated his lights, the defendant was about a hundred feet from his home. Rather than stopping, the defendant continued to his driveway where he entered his garage. The officer activated his lights solely due to the disturbance that the defendant was causing while driving.  

The officer then parked his vehicle and followed the defendant into his garage and began to question the defendant. While questioning the defendant, he noticed that the defendant was showing signs of intoxication and he subsequently had the defendant perform field sobriety tests. The defendant did not perform these tests to the officer’s satisfaction and was arrested. The defendant later submitted to a blood test that showed his BAC was more than three times the legal limit. 

The defendant was charged with DUI and a low-level noise infraction. Prior to trial, the defendant moved to suppress all the evidence that was obtained after the police entered his garage arguing that it had been a warrantless entry that violated his Fourth Amendment rights. Further, the prosecutor argued that because the defendant had fled from the officer, the officer did not have to obtain a search warrant to enter the defendant’s home because it was an exigent circumstance that permitted a warrantless entry into the defendant’s home. 

The defendant’s motion to suppress was denied and the defendant was subsequently convicted of the aforementioned charges. The defendant then filed a timely appeal. The California Court of Appeal denied the defendant’s appeal, holding that the police are always allowed to enter a suspect’s home when said suspect is fleeing after the commission of a crime, regardless of whether it is a misdemeanor or not. The California Supreme Court declined to hear the defendant’s case. Undeterred, the defendant then filed a writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court to hear his case. The Court agreed to take his case because “[c]ourts are divided over whether the Fourth Amendment always permits an officer to enter a home without a warrant in pursuit of a fleeing misdemeanor suspect.”  

The United States Supreme Court’s Decision

The United States Supreme Court vacated the defendant’s conviction and remanded it for additional proceedings. The Court held that there is no blanket fleeing suspect exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement. Specifically, the Court held that police cannot automatically enter one’s home to pursue a suspect without considering the type of crime the suspect may have committed.

Courts across the country will now have to apply a totality of the circumstances approach to determine whether a valid law enforcement emergency exists to permit an officer to enter one’s home, without a warrant, to pursue a fleeing misdemeanor suspect. According to the Court, examples of such valid law enforcement emergencies include: imminent harm to others, a threat to the officer himself, destruction of evidence, or escape from the home. If any of these scenarios are applicable, then the police will not need a warrant to enter a suspect’s home. Therefore, the defendant’s conviction is vacated and his case is remanded back to the trial court. The trial court will have to make a determination, based on the facts of his case, whether the officer was legally justified in entering the defendant’s home without a warrant.  

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