Supreme Court Strikes Down Red Flag Laws in a Unanimous Decision
(May 17, 2022)
A red flag law is a gun control law that permits variously police, family members, coworkers, and others to petition a state court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person who they believe may present a danger to others or themselves.
“[Liz George] The Supreme Court ruled Monday that warrantless gun confiscation from Americans’ homes is unconstitutional, voting unanimously on the side of a Rhode Island man whose firearms were taken by law enforcement without a warrant after his wife expressed concerns that he might hurt himself.
According to Caniglia v Strom, a lower court had previously determined that police confiscating the guns without a warrant fell under the Fourth Amendment’s “community caretaking” exception, but a 9-0 vote from the nation’s top court struck down that ruling.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the unanimous opinion for the Supreme Court, stating that law enforcement can execute “many civic tasks in modern society,” but there is “not an open-ended license to perform them anywhere.”
“The very core of the Fourth Amendment,” Thomas wrote, is the “right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable search and seizure.” (Report by Montana Daily Gazette, May 17, 2022).
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