The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether the belief that a person has committed a misdemeanor is enough basis for police to enter a home without a warrant, reports Courthouse News Service. The case involves Arthur Lange, of Sonoma, Ca., who was playing music loudly in his car while headed home in 2016. After observing Lange honking his horn, highway patrol officer Aaron Weikert followed from a distance, intending to initiate a traffic stop but not activating overhead lights or his siren. It was only after Lange clicked his garage door opener that Weikert activated his lights, pulling into the driveway behind Lange.
Insisting he could smell alcohol on Lange’s breath, Weikert demanded his driver’s license and registration. Lange was then arrested for driving under the influence — a charge to which he pleaded no contest when the courts refused to suppress the evidence obtained from his garage after the warrantless entry. In affirming the conviction, the California Court of Appeal ruled that Lange’s driving 100 feet into his driveway while Weikert’s lights were active constituted probable cause of additional flight-related misdemeanors.Though the court held that Weikert was in “hot pursuit,” Lange says that characterization is not appropriate in the investigation of minor offenses as was the case here. In his petition to the Supreme Court, Lange challenges the warrant exception for misdemeanor pursuit, saying it violates precedent and common-low limits on warrantless home entries. The principle allows “an officer investigating a minor offense to forcibly enter a home even where there is no real emergency — and even where, as here, the officer initially intends only to question a suspect or issue a citation,” his high court petition says.