Exceptions to Warrants

Exigent circumstances

There are certain situations in which a police officer must perform searches of property without the luxury of having time to obtain a warrant. In these exigent circumstances, a search may be valid as an exception to the standard warrant requirement.

This is often the case if a police officer is in pursuit of a suspect that poses an imminent threat to others. In these circumstances, the officer cannot be expected to go through the process of obtaining a warrant before searching a person or property. This is limited, however, by the exigent nature of this exception. For example, in Vale v. Louisiana, 399 U.S. 30 (1970), officers obtained an arrest warrant for a suspect, and drove to the suspects house, where they observed him engaging in a drug deal. After the officers arrested the suspect, they entered his home and discovered drugs within his home. The United States Supreme Court, however, stated "[w]e decline to hold that an arrest on the street can provide its own 'exigent circumstance' so as to justify a warrantless search of the arrestee's house."

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Page last updated: 2/17/2007
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