WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Montana Attorney General’s Office today defended a Montana Supreme Court decision that says law enforcement may enter a home without a search warrant if there is a reason to believe a life-threatening emergency is occurring. Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen attended the arguments with Solicitor General Christian Corrigan, who argued for the state.

In the case of William Trevor Case v. State of Montana, law enforcement in Anaconda entered Case’s home in 2021 after receiving and witnessing credible information that the defendant, William Case, may have committed suicide. The officers entered the home to provide emergency aid if needed, and instead Case was hiding in a closet and upon seeing police he exited the closet and pointed a gun at an officer. The officer subsequently shot and wounded Case. Ultimately, Case was found guilty by a jury of assaulting a peace officer. He appealed that decision to the Montana Supreme Court, which affirmed the jury’s verdict.

“The officers involved in this case did their due diligence and acted swiftly with reasonable suspicion that Case’s life was in danger. We do not want courts preventing officers from acting on reasonable beliefs that lives are in danger. I’m proud that my office could support law enforcement’s duty to provide aid when lives are at risk before the Supreme Court today,” Attorney General Knudsen said.

While Case claims the officers violated his Fourth Amendment rights, which protect citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government, when they entered his home, the Fourth Amendment’s plain text does not require either warrants or probable cause for all searches, it commands only that searches must be “reasonable.” In this instance, officers believed they had enough objectively reasonable evidence that supported that Case may have died and that was enough reason to enter the home without a warrant.

Attorney General Knudsen maintains that “probable cause” is tied to criminal investigations and should not require a warrant when law enforcement enters a home to protect someone during an emergency.