Overview
- Justice Elena Kagan wrote for a unanimous Court that officers may enter a home only when they have an objectively reasonable basis to believe an occupant is seriously injured or imminently threatened.
- The ruling reaffirms that the emergency-aid exception does not require traditional probable cause and cannot be used as a pretext for criminal investigation.
- The dispute stems from a 2021 welfare check near Butte, Montana, after reports that William Trevor Case had threatened suicide.
- Officers reported seeing an empty handgun holster and a notepad they took as a suicide note, entered through an unlocked door, and a confrontation ensued in which an officer shot and wounded Case, leading to his later assault conviction.
- The decision delivers nationwide guidance on the limits of warrantless home entry and returns the matter to lower courts for proceedings consistent with the clarified standard.