Today our firm filed an amicus brief in support of a challenge to a Second Circuit decision which upheld an illegal search and seizure of firearms in his home by police after Petitioner was taken for a mental health examination. The police now assert that the “special needs exception” to the Fourth Amendment permitted the search and seizure.
Our brief urges the Supreme Court to grant review to reconsider the “special needs” exception which was created before the Supreme Court restored the property principle to Fourth Amendment cases in United States v. Jones. Our brief also explains the danger of the “special needs” exception, which has no textual, historical or tradition-based support, but instead was the product of judicial interest balancing. Finally, we explain that the First Circuit erred by applying a Second Amendment exception to the Fourth Amendment in determining that a person forfeits one constitutional right (the Fourth Amendment) by exercising another (the Second Amendment).