As far as the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is concerned, Louisiana police no longer need arrest or search warrants to make "brief" searches of your home or business – on the grounds, the court held, that it could enhance police safety, though others fear that kind of leeway could lead to abuse of power.
"[W]e believe that the need for police officers to protect themselves by conducting protective sweeps can be equally acute regardless of whether the sweep is incident to an arrest," the court opinion held.
The case involves a lawsuit from 2000 in which Kelly Donald Gould – on record as a convicted felon "for violent charges," according to the appellate ruling text – sought to suppress evidence from a search of his trailer home by sheriff’s deputies. The search came as a result of one of Gould’s employees telling officers Gould intended to kill two judges and unidentified police officers and destroy telephone company transformers, according to a published report.
The officers were told by Gould's housemate that he was asleep but the housemate let the officers in, where they found the door to Gould's bedroom open slightly and, thinking he might be hiding elsewhere, looked inside three closets, finding three firearms.
A lower court had ruled that evidence gathered in the warrantless search should be suppressed, and the federal government appealed that ruling. The appellate court held the evidence should remain suppressed but ruled for the lenient police searches. Gould has remained in federal custody since 2002.
"It's very disturbing," said Adult Sites Against Child Pornography executive director Joan Irvine when she was told of the ruling. "[T]his serves as a statement to those people who send ASACP an e-mail and say someone has child pornography images but don't provide any proof. They expect us to just report these people. It just doesn't work this way, even though we would like all child pornographers behind bars. But the laws and procedures are there for a good reason."
"It sounds extremely threatening," said adult Internet marketer Brandy Shapiro. "Now you need to rely on the word of honor from a police officer. That's a lot of gray-area judgment. It makes private property not private anymore."
New Orleans police told reporters they intend to use the new search power "judiciously," but former U.S. Attorney Julian Murray told New Orleans' NBC affiliate it goes "way too far."
But Louisiana's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union denounced the ruling as leaving people at the possible mercy of a police state. "It is particularly egregious that the police acknowledged that they lacked authority to search a master bedroom and closet," said chapter executive director Joe Cook in a statement.
"The Fifth Circuit has effectively carved out a deep exception to the constitutional warrant requirement rationalizing police misconduct after the fact," he continued. "Allowing law enforcement to search homes without probable cause or any warrant makes a dramatic and dangerous departure from one of our most fundamental American freedoms.”
