Participation of Supreme Court of The United States Discussion

Here is Participation Topic #4: The Supreme Court of the United States will hear Lange v. California in its current term. A good bit of background coverage is available at ABA Journal, SCOTUSblog, and the Oyez project.

Imagine that you are a Supreme Court Justice hearing this case.  How would you vote and why? Provide legal reasoning, not your personal  feelings.

You must post: 1) a substantial (250-word minimum) initial answer to the question; and,  2) a substantial (100-word minimum) reply to a colleague. this what one  of my classmates said and I need a 100 word replay to him please :

In the case Lange v. California, if I was a Supreme Court Justice I  would vote to affirm the judgment of conviction against Lange.  The  exigent circumstance procedure says that it allows law enforcement to  entry, “under certain circumstances that would cause a reasonable person  to believe that entry was necessary to prevent physical harm to the  officers or other persons, the destruction of relevant evidence, the  escape of the suspect, or some other consequences improperly frustrating  legitimate law enforcement efforts.”  This is the exception to the  requirement of a warrant under the Fourth Amendment which states that  protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The exception to the Fourth Amendment does not specify if it  matters if the violation is a misdemeanor or not so I think that it  another reason the conviction should stay.  Kavanaugh made a good point  that whether it is a misdemeanor or not should not matter, because “the  fact that the suspect’s flight is itself an exigency.”   I agree with that comment because then everyone would evade the police  if they knew as soon as they arrived home they were free from any crime  they did as long as they did not get caught. Another point made by  Roberts stated that once a suspect flees into their home police are  really the ones  “in a dangerous situation.”

If Lange was not under the influence, would he be so offended that  the officer went into his home? He broke the law first by refusing to  stop.