Lange, Caniglia, and the Myth of Home Exceptionalism
Ric Simmons For over a hundred years, the Supreme Court has employed rhetoric in its Fourth Amendment cases that supports the concept of “home exceptionalism”—that is, the idea that protecting the home is the “very core” of the Fourth Amendment. Two cases from this year’s Supreme Court term, Lange v. California and Caniglia v. Strom, appear at first to support this doctrine, since a narrow reading of their holdings appears to enhance Fourth Amendment protection of the home.However, a closer examination of Supreme Court doctrine reveals that home exceptionalism is a myth. Although the home does receive small amounts of special protection in some areas, such as the arrest warrant requirement and the protection of curtilage, these special protections are far weaker than the Court’s rhetoric implies. In fact, the recent…