Supreme Court rules for California motorist followed home by police

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday for a California motorist who said a police officer violated his privacy rights by following him home and then into his garage, where he was given a ticket for drunk driving.

B a 9-0 vote, the justices overturned his conviction and said the 4th Amendment usually forbids the police from entering a driveway or a home unless it is true emergency or they have a search warrant.

In Lange vs. California, the high court reversed the opinion of California state judges who said police may follow a person if they are in "hot pursuit," even if the suspect's offense is a minor one that could a yield a traffic ticket.

In this case, a California Highway Patrol officer decided to follow Arthur Lange because he was playing loud music on his car radio.

Justice Elena Kagan said the case did not involve pursuing a fleeing felon from the scene of a major crime. Lange was charged with a misdemeanor.

"The need to pursue a misdemeanant does not trigger a categorical rule allowing home entry, even absent a law enforcement emergency," she wrote. "When the nature of the crime, the nature of the flight, and surrounding facts present no such exigency, officers must respect the sanctity of the home — which means that they must get a warrant," she wrote.

The case began in October 2016 when Lange, a retired real estate broker, was driving home in Sonoma County and listening to loud music. He drew the attention of a CHP officer who began following him.

A few seconds before Lange turned into his driveway, the officer said he turned on the flashing lights of his patrol car. He followed the motorist into his garage and questioned him. The officer smelled alcohol on his breath and wrote Lange a ticket for driving under the influence and for the "infraction of operating a vehicle's sound system at excessive levels."

In response, Lange said the charges should be thrown out because the officer violated the 4th Amendment's ban on "unreasonable searches and seizures" when he entered his driveway and garage without a search warrant.

Usually police may not enter private property unless they have a warrant or are responding to an emergency, including a so-called hot pursuit of a fleeing felon.

Prosecutors argued that because Lange failed to stop when the police car flashed its lights, the officer was justified in pursuing him into his garage.

A Superior Court judge and a California appeals court agreed. "Because the officer was in hot pursuit of a suspect whom he had probable cause to arrest, the officer’s warrantless entry into Lange’s driveway and garage were lawful," the state court said.

In reversing the state appeals court, Kagan said "an officer must consider all the circumstances in a pursuit case to determine whether there is a law enforcement emergency."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.