Case v. Montana · ¶12

On appeal, a divided Montana Supreme Court upheld the trial court's ruling that the officers' entry was lawful. The majority analyzed the issue under its “community caretaker doctrine.” 553 P. 3d 985, 990 (Mont. 2024). It noted that a recent Fourth Amendment decision of this Court, Caniglia v. Strom, 593 U. S. 194, 198 (2021), had rejected a “community caretaking rule” allowing a warrantless home entry even absent a “need to render emergency assistance” to an occupant. But the Montana court thought its community-caretaker doctrine survived that holding because it demanded such an emergency. Under that doctrine, the court explained, police could enter a home to do a “welfare check” only when “objective, specific and articulable facts” would lead an “experienced officer [to] suspect” that a person inside “is in need of help or is in peril.” 553 P. 3d, at 990, 991. And the court found that…

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