An Analysis and Categorization of U.S. Supreme Court Cases Under the Exigent Circumstances Exception to the Warrant Requirement

• In Event: Posters II

Abstract

The general rule under the Fourth Amendment is that the police cannot enter private premises to conduct a search or seizure without a warrant. An exception is exigent circumstances. What exigent circumstances means can be rather confusing but it generally involves an exigency that makes obtaining a warrant difficult or impractical. Using U.S. Supreme Court cases as the sample, this paper aims to categorize exigent circumstances and provides guidelines on when a lawful warrantless search may be conducted based on the exigent circumstances. It first identifies three key concepts that help determine when exigent circumstances are presented, creating a framework that includes three categories and twelve sub-categories. Then, using comprehensive search methods, it collects 32 representative cases from 109 U.S. Supreme Court cases on exigent circumstances and warrantless searches. Through the categorical analysis of those sample cases based on the layers of the framework, this study presents policy considerations on police warrantless searches involving exigent circumstances.

Authors

• Di Jia, Sam Houston State University

• Kallee Spooner, Sam Houston State University

• Rolando del Carmen, Sam Houston State University