Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Skadden Pro Bono Client Edward Caniglia

On May 17, Skadden secured a unanimous victory in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of pro bono client Edward Caniglia in a Fourth Amendment case. The Court held that the so-called “community caretaking” exception does not justify warrantless searches of homes, repudiating the First Circuit’s decision in the case. The First Circuit’s now-discarded standard would have allowed officers to demand entry into people’s homes based on subjective and undefined community-caretaking needs. In rejecting that standard, the Supreme Court reaffirmed bedrock Fourth Amendment principles and held that police do not have “an open-ended license to perform” community-caretaking tasks in the home.