Smith v. City of Santa Clara, No. 14-15103 (9th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseOnce the government has probable cause to believe that the probationer has actually reoffended by participating in a violent felony, the government's need to locate the probationer and protect the public is heightened. This heightened interest in locating the probationer is sufficient to outweigh a third party's privacy interest in the home that she shares with the probationer. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's judgment in favor of police officers and the city in a 42 U.S.C. 1983 action. Plaintiff and her minor granddaughter alleged that their constitutional rights were violated when officers conducted a search of plaintiff's home. The officers were searching for plaintiff's daughter, who was on probation. The terms of the probation allowed warrantless searches of her person and residence. The panel held that the warrantless search of the home over plaintiff's objection was reasonable as a matter of law.
Court Description: Civil Rights The panel affirmed the district court’s judgment, entered following a jury verdict, in favor of several police officers and the City of Santa Clara, in an action brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that police officers violated plaintiff’s constitutional rights under state and federal law when they conducted a search of her home. Santa Clara police officers, over plaintiff’s objections, entered her home, without a warrant, to search for her daughter who was on probation and who police had probable cause to believe had just been involved in a theft of an automobile and a stabbing. The panel held that once the government has probable cause to believe that a probationer has actually reoffended by participating in a violent felony, the government’s need to locate the probationer and protect the public is heightened. The panel held that this heightened interest in locating the probationer was sufficient to outweigh a third party’s privacy interest in the home that she shared with the probationer. The panel held that Georgia v. Randolph, 547 U.S. 103 (2006), which recognized a limitation on warrantless consent searches, was not directly applicable because the Supreme Court’s probation-search cases did not rest on a consent rationale. Instead, the question was whether a warrantless probation search that affects the rights
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