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David H. Gans, Opinion contributor Published 7:44 p.m. ET March 22, 2021

The footprint of American policing is vast.

And policeofficersrespond toa host ofproblems that have nothing to do with catchingpeople suspected of crimes. Fundamental questions about just how far police power should extendare at the core of acritically important case,Caniglia v. Strom, thatthe Supreme Court is slated to hear Wednesday.

This case has gone unnoticed so far among a Supreme Court docket loaded with important cases concerning everything fromhealth care, voting rightsandreligious exemptionsto anti-discrimination laws.But the issue inCaniglia whether policeofficersmayinvadea personshomewithout a warrantor without suspicionof criminal activity,simply becausetheyare pursuing a community caretakingfunction could notbe more important.

The questionthe justices must answeris far reaching:Is our home still our castle?

The Supreme Court(Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

"When it comes to the Fourth Amendment,the home is first among equals,as Justice Antonin Scaliaput itin a2013 ruling. If police canentera persons home without any suspicion of criminal wrongdoingsimply because they claim to be taking care of the community,the Fourth Amendment would be close to a dead letter.Ourright to be securewould existonly at the whim of the police.

The police officerswho broke into the home of Edward Canigliaareurging the court, with therather surprisingsupport of the Biden administration,tobless a massive expansion in the power of policeto enter the home.They claim that police officers may invade the hometo protect thepurportedsafetyofthecommunityifthe police actedreasonably. As a fallback, they argue that the police officersareprotected by qualifiedimmunity, a doctrine that prevents holding police officers and otherslegallyaccountable.

Embracingsuch an open-ended formulawould grant police officers theunbridleddiscretion the Fourth Amendment was designed to prevent.The Fourth Amendment promised to end indiscriminate searches and seizures of the home.Canigliatests whether the justices are willing to enforce the central idea at the heart of the Fourth Amendment: the need for strict limits on excessive police discretion.

In theory,communitycaretakingsoundslike areasonablejustification.But the difficulty is that it lacks any coherent limiting principleand wouldallow the police to invade the privacy and sanctity of the homein a startling array of circumstances. Expanding the power of the police to break into a persons home particularlyforpetty matterssuch asinvestigatingnoise complaints opensthe door tohorrificpoliceabuse andviolence.These fears are hardly theoretical.In recent years,police have killeda number ofinnocent Black people in their homes. Expanding opportunities forwarrantlesspolice entryinto the homehas the potential to end in even moreloss of life.

In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, who died after an officer put a kneeon the unarmed Black man's neck,Americans have been reckoning with the scourge of police violence that has resulted in the taking of so many innocent lives in communities of color.One of the most important lessons we have learnedin the past yearisthatthepolice are engaged in many tasks that have little to do with crime fighting and do not require the use of force. We need to findways to limit the circumstances in which we rely on the police, who are given immense powers by the state touse force and inflictharm.

Sanctioning a massive expansion in the power of the policeto invadethe homebasedona nebulous interest in "community caretaking" would move the law in the exact opposite direction. It would place the Supreme Courts imprimatur on the broadest possible conception of the power of the police toviolateour security and privacy in the home.To be sure, such unbridled police authority would fall hardest on the poorest and most marginalized communities, but the threat cuts across ideological linesin unexpected ways.Amicus briefsfiled in support of Canigliarangefrom Gun Owners of America, the Second Amendment Law Center, Institute for Justiceand the Cato Instituteto the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyersand my organization,theConstitutional Accountability Center.

TheFounding generation considered the hometo bea place of perfect security.Thequestion now is whether the Supreme Court will respect the text and history of the Fourth Amendment, or invent a new exception that would open the floodgates to police entry of the home.

Thejusticesshould make clear that policeneed a warrant and probable cause of criminal wrongdoing or emergency circumstances before theyentera personshome.

DavidH.Gans is civil rights director at Constitutional Accountability Center, a public interest law firm and think tank dedicated to promoting the progressive promise of the Constitutions text, history and values.

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In wake of Floyd, Taylor killings, should police have power to enter your home without a warrant? - USA TODAY