Charles H. Wilson, et Ux., et al. v. Harry Layne, Deputy United States Marshal, Etc., et al. (526 U.S. 603)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 24, 1999 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 526 U.S. 603 · 119 S. Ct. 1692
- Decided
- May 24, 1999
- Term
- October Term 1998
- Vote
- 8–1
- Majority author
- Justice Rehnquist
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
CHIEF Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court. While executing an arrest warrant in a private home, police officers invited representatives of the media to accompany them. We hold that such a “media ride-along” does violate the Fourth Amendment, but that because the state of the law was not clearly established at the time the search in this ease took place, the officers are entitled to the defense of qualified immunity. I In early 1992, the Attorney General of the United States approved “Operation Gunsmoke,” a special national fugitive apprehension program in which United States Marshals worked with state and local police to apprehend dangerous criminals. The “Operation Gunsmoke” policy statement explained that the operation was to concentrate on “armed individuals wanted on federal and/or state and local warrants for serious drug and other violent felonies.” App. 15. This effective program ultimately resulted in over 3,000 arrests in 40 metropolitan areas. Brief for Federal Respondents Layne et al. 2. One of the dangerous as “Operation Gunsmoke” was Dominic Wilson, the son of petitioners Charles and Geraldine Wilson. Dominic Wilson had violated his probation on previous felony charges of robbery, theft, and assault with intent to rob, and the police computer listed “caution indicators” that he was likely to be armed, to resist arrest, and to “assaul[t] police.”…
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