In April, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts expanded the circumstances under which police could enter a home without a search warrant.
The facts of the case are of a nature almost calculated to extinguish sympathy with the defendant. As reported in the Lynn Daily Item, the Duncan family mistreated their dogs and left them outside in January of 2011.
A neighbor called the police, and the police found two dogs dead in the front yard and a third starving to death.
Normally, the Fourth Amendment prevents access to the home or the “curtilage” (surroundings) of a home without a warrant based on probable cause. However, the Fourth Amendment is also honeycombed through with two centuries’ worth of exceptions and special circumstances driven by facts such as these. Here, the court ruled that the already-existing “exigent circumstances” exception to needing a warrant in order to save human life, also applied to animal life. The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, among others, were pleased at the outcome.
We are not altogether so pleased at the implications of this ruling. Let me explain why.
Continue reading Animal welfare clashes with the Fourth Amendment in Lynn