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.
