[ExI] SCOTUS Weakens 4th Amendment

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 12/09/2026 11:13, Stuart LaForge wrote:
> It is not surprising that the news media has been silent about the 
> January 2026 SCOTUS ruling in Case vs. Montana. The 9-0 ruling 
> effectively undermines the 4th Amendment protections against 
> unreasonable searches and seizures.
>
> https://nccriminallaw.sog.unc.edu/2026/02/02/case-v-montana-attempts-to-clarify-the-emergency-aid-exception-to-the-warrant-requirement/
>
> It effectively allows "Emergency Aid Doctrine" to effectively nullify 
> probable cause and search warrants in order to enter a home. It gives 
> police the option to replace the old standard of "probable cause" and 
> getting a search warrant to look for specific things" with a new 
> standard of an "objectively reasonable basis for believing that an 
> occupant is seriously injured or imminently threatened with such 
> injury".
>
>
>
> The story is that a man named William Case who lived in Montana had a 
> home, a gun, and a girlfriend. Case became depressed or pissed off his 
> girl friend or something because she called the police and said that he 
> was depressed and she was worried about him because he had a gun and she 
> hadn't heard from him in a while. So the police valiantly go to his 
> house and knock on his door announce that they are the police and they 
> are there a welfare check to make sure he is not harming himself. Case, 
> although home, does not answer. The police notice his pickup in the 
> driveway so they are sure they are home. They look in a window and see a 
> piece of paper on a table that "looked like a suicide note".
>
>
>
> This prompts the police to go into "emergency mode". They decide they 
> are going to kick down William Case's door to rescue him. But then they 
> remember that his girlfriend said that he has a gun. So they call for 
> backup, don their body armor, get out their assault rifles and shotguns 
> and then 40 minutes later, they finally kick down William Case's door. 
> Meanwhile, the terrified William Case hides in his bedroom closet. The 
> police make entry and do a room by room sweep of the William Case's 
> house probably looking through his cabinets, drawers, and closets for 
> narcotics and other contraband when they come across his hiding spot. 
> The police officer who found William and shot him said it looked like he 
> was holding a gun and that teh officer feared for his own life." There 
> was a handgun that recovered from near where William was standing. 
> William Case was charged and convicted of assaulting a police officer 
> who broke into his home without a warrant. He obviously lost on appeal.
>
>
>
> So now the police get to enter and search your home for free and charge 
> you for anything illegal that they find, if you don't check in with your 
> girlfriend everyday. This has got to be one of the worst SCOTUS rulings 
> since Dredd Scott and the overturning of Roe v Wade. And the fact that 
> it was unanimous tells me this is a bipartisan attack on the 
> Constitution and sends a clear signal to law enforcement to turn the USA 
> into a dystopian police state.


I'm wondering if this impacts on spike's insistence that the constitution will rein in Trump's constant attacks on it, come what may.

Are the amendments regarded as separate things, that can be eroded without the constitution itself being under threat, or does this represent the thin end of the wedge, that might eventually render the constitution itself ineffective? Can further amendments be made that cancel out things that are in the constitution?

I know that there's always the option to simply ignore it, provided you have control of the forces that should be upholding it (which is what seems to be the strategy, so far), but I was wondering if there's a 'legal' way to overturn it.
-- 
Ben