Is a man's home his castle?  Traditional Fourth Amendment jurisprudence says yes - the police may not enter your home without a warrant.  An exception to that rule, however, the "Exigent Circumstances" exception, has steadily eroded the rule when it comes to people using drugs - a victimless crime - in their own homes.

Today, May 16, 2011, the Court further eroded that fundamental principle when it ruled that Kentucky Police acted properly when they stood outside an apartment door, smelled marijuana, banged on the door, heard movement inside... and then smashed the door down without a search warrant and arrested the people inside.  The defendant, King, got an ELEVEN YEAR prison sentence based on the drugs found in the apartment.  Kentucky v. King, No. 09-1272, United States Supreme Court (decided May 16, 2011).  Read the Court's Opinion. 

In making this decision, the Court reversed a decision of the Kentucky Supreme Court, which would have required the police to obtain a search warrant. 

Justice Ginsburg, in dissent, lamented the continuing slow death of the Fourth Amendment by reminding us of its vitality in an earlier age.   She aptly summarized today's decision by writing: "The Court today arms the police with a way routinely to dishonor the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement in drug cases." 

Then, she quoted a 1961 Supreme Court precedent, Silverman v. United States, as follows: "At the Fourth Amendment's very core stands the right of a man to retreat to his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion." 

That may be true for businesspeople, white collar criminals and the like.  That "core" has turned hollow, however, for those accused of drug crimes.  

(c) May, 2011 Theodore Lothstein