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Cal.3d: Mentally ill retain Fourth Amendment rights; prohibition of possession of firearms does not sanction warrantless entries

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

The mentally ill retain Fourth Amendment rights. The fact they are not permitted to possess firearms does not give the police the authority to make warrantless entries to confiscate them. Moreover, that does not even give grounds for a search warrant under Penal Code § 1524. People v. Sweig, 2008 Cal. App. LEXIS 1698 (3d Dist. October 27, 2008): In this case, a search warrant could not have been obtained despite the legislative mandate (§ 8102) that law enforcement shall confiscate and retain custody of any firearm or other deadly weapon that is owned, possessed, or under the control of a person detained for mental health treatment and evaluation because the person is suffering from a mental disorder causing the person to be gravely disabled or dangerous to himself, herself, or others (§ 5150)...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on October 28, 2008 (boomark / email).