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SCOTUS decides emergency entry case on cert. papers: Michigan v. Fisher

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

The Supreme Court decided an emergency entry case today Michigan v. Fisher, 2009 U.S. LEXIS 8773 (December 7, 2009) (per curiam), on the cert papers, reversing the Michigan Court of Appeals which suppressed an entry into a house where a guy was inside going "crazy" and the officers could see a bloody hand. To the Court, that was essentially the same as Brigham City v. Stuart, 547 U. S. 398 (2006), on the severity of the injury. Even a casual review of Brigham City reveals the flaw in this reasoning. Officers do not need ironclad proof of “a likely serious, life-threatening” injury to invoke the emergency aid exception. The only injury police could confirm in Brigham City was the bloody lip they saw the juvenile inflict upon the adult...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on December 07, 2009 (boomark / email).