The Emergency-Aid Exception to the Fourth Amendment Warrant Requirement: A Traditional Probable Cause Standard, or Something Less?

Petitioner William Trevor Case was convicted of assaulting a police officer in Montana. The assault charge arose from an armed, warrantless police entry into petitioner’s home when the police suspected that petitioner intended “suicide by cop.” Petitioner moved to suppress the evidence the police seized during the entry, arguing that the police lacked probable cause of an emergency to justify a warrantless entry. The Montana courts, however, found that even if the police lacked the traditional standard of probable cause, they had a “reasonable suspicion” that petitioner presented a suicide risk that satisfied the emergency-aid exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement. Petitioner appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that, to enter a home without a warrant to intervene in a perceived emergency, the police still must have probable cause that the emergency exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]