Community Caretaking

John Anderton: Why did you catch that?
Danny Witwer: Because it was going to fall.
John Anderton: You're certain?
Danny Witwer: Yeah.
John Anderton: But it didn't fall. You caught it. That fact that you prevented it from happening doesn't change the fact that it was GOING to happen.
--Minority Report

Judge Nap recounts a case in Rhode Island of illegal search and seizure. After a man agreed to go the hospital for an evaluation only after the local police promised not to enter his house and confiscate his firearms, they did just that. The man left in an ambulance, and the police proceeded to enter his house without a warrant and took his guns.

When the man sued for unlawful arrest, search, and seizure, the police argued that they didn't enter the house to investigate a crime. Instead, they were engaging in 'community caretaking.'

The Fourth Amendment protects the right to be left alone. Absent a warrant, search and seizure is illegal.

Government being what it is, however, has attempted to find legal arguments around the plain and obvious language of the Bill of Rights. The argument is that there should be 'exigencies'--i.e., exceptions when there is belief that a crime will imminently occur.

This is laughable 'Minority Report' logic.

Nonetheless, the government has successfully pushed the law in its favor. It has done so to justify warrantless electronic surveillance. It has also been doing so to do 'community caretaking.' In this particular case, the police claim they were protecting the man from himself by entering his home and collecting his guns.

Federal and state courts have been upholding community caretaking arguments until last week when the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the First Circuit's ruling in the Rhode Island case. It did not go so far as to outright say that the language in the Fourth Amendment is clear (as that would threaten the warrantless surveillance institution). But it did say that the exigency notion could not be expanded to include the community caretaking notion.

This is a step in the right direction toward liberty.