When Are the Police Allowed to Search Your Home Without a Warrant?

          In a recent case called Michigan v. Fisher, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a police officer may enter a home without a search warrant to render emergency assistance to an injured occupant or to protect an occupant from imminent injury.  An article that I posted on my Federal Criminal Lawyer website examines the Fisher case.

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Joe - December 26, 2009 1:22 PM

Entering a home to provide assistance generally does not also entail a search of the home. How exactly are you relating these two, since there is a pretty clear distinction in my mind.

Attorney Chapman's response:

The point of the Fisher case is that if the police inadvertently discover evidence of a crime while rendering emergency assistance within a home, they are lawfully allowed to seize that evidence or arrest the person who committed the crime.

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