In Smith v. City of Santa Clara, published November 30, 2017, the 9th Circuit affirmed a judgment after jury verdict in favor of the defendant city and its police officers who conducted a warrantless search of a duplex in which the plaintiff resided, over the plaintiff's protests. The police had probable cause to believe that the plaintiff's daughter, a probationer, had stabbed a victim and was at large. The daughter had repeatedly listed the plaintiff's duplex as the daughter's residence. The plaintiff argued that under U.S. Supreme Court authority holding that a warrantless search of a residence based only on a resident's consent violates the Fourth Amendment if another resident objects to the search, the search violated her Fourth Amendment rights.
The 9th Circuit held that under the circumstances--the officers had probable cause to believe that a probationer who had committed a violent crime and who was at large lived in the residence--the interests in apprehending the probationer and thus protecting the public outweighed the non-probationer resident's privacy interests. The case law concerning consent did not apply, because the rule that warrantless searches of probationers' residences are permitted is not based on consent.
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