SCOTUS Unanimously Votes that Warrantless Gun Confiscation is Unconstitutional in the Home

Nick Kangadis | May 18, 2021
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The Supreme Court all actually agreed to uphold the Constitution on Monday, unanimously ruling that it’s unconstitutional for authorities to confiscate firearms from American’s homes without a warrant.

According to documents in the case of Canglia v. Strom, the court voted 9-0 that warrantless gun confiscation is a violation of a citizen’s Constitutional rights.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion of the court, saying that the Fourth Amendment “does not” justify “warrantless searches and seizures in the home.”

“The question today is whether Cady’s [Cady v. Dombrowski, 1973] acknowledgment of these “caretaking” duties creates a standalone doctrine that justifies warrantless searches and seizures in the home,” Thomas wrote. “It does not.”

The case was based on a possible exemption, called “community caretaking,” that allows law enforcement to enter a “disabled vehicle” or when “investigating accidents.” The difference in this case was the examination of whether that exemption extended to the home.

As American Military News reported on the basis for the case and the exemption brought into question:

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that warrantless gun confiscation from Americans’ homes is unconstitutional, voting unanimously on the side of a Rhode Island man whose firearms were taken by law enforcement without a warrant after his wife expressed concerns that he might hurt himself[…]

Another exception – the one on which this case was based – is called “community caretaking.” The Supreme Court previously determined that police can bypass the warrant requirement to perform “community caretaking functions, totally divorced from the detection, investigation, or acquisition of evidence relating to the violation of a criminal statute,” noting a situation when police took a gun from the trunk of an impounded vehicle without a warrant.

Hey, at least there’s a branch of government that acknowledges the existence of the U.S. Constitution every now and then.

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