Brief filed: 08/13/2020
Documents
Lange v. California
United States Supreme Court; Case No. 20-18
Prior Decision
Decision Below 2019 WL 5654385 (Cal.App. 1 Dist. Oct 30, 2019)
Argument(s)
NACDL and CACJ join to support a petition to the United States Supreme Court to review a California State Appellate Court decision expanding the “community caretaking” exception to the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement to the home in all misdemeanor cases. The case involved a domestic dispute in which the wife viewed the husband as potentially suicidal and called officers. While the petitioner/husband was taken for examination (and later released), the officers entered the home and seized petitioner’s guns. Authorities refused to return the guns until petitioner sued for numerous constitutional violations. The trial court dismissed the suit on caretaking grounds, as did the court of appeals. The amicus brief, following an extensive review of warrantless entries in misdemeanor cases (especially “failure to obey” cases) details numerous instances in which grievous and unnecessary harm resulted from the warrantless entry.
Author(s)
Elaine Goldenberg, Jonathan Kravis, Craig Jennings Lavoie, and Brandon E. Martinez, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, Washington, DC; Jeffrey T. Green, NACDL, Washington, DC.
