The issues involve both the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fourth Amendment. Oral argument is coming up. Expect a decision sometime in late May or early June. According to SCOTUS.blog, the facts area as follows:
"In August 2008, a city social worker made an attempt to check up on Teresa Sheehan, a mentally disabled woman living in a group home in San Francisco. The worker planned to take Sheehan for a current psychiatric evaluation. He let himself into her room with a key, apparently without first getting permission.
Sheehan told him to leave and, he said later, brandished a knife and threatened to kill him. He called the police and took other residents out of the home. Two San Francisco police officers, Kimberly Reynolds and Katherine Holder, responded and learned of the situation. The social worker asked them to help get Sheehan to the facility for the planned test. He told them that Sheehan had not been taking her medicines, and was not taking care of herself physically.
The officers knocked on the door of Sheehan’s room and announced themselves. Using the social worker’s key, they unlocked the door and entered. Sheehan was lying on the bed, but apparently got up suddenly. The officers later said that she grabbed a knife, told them to get out, and said she did not need any help. She allegedly also threatened to kill the two police officers, and said they had no warrant to arrest her.
The officers left the room and called for back-up support. Without waiting for other officers to arrive, according to the record in the case, the two officers decided to force their way back into Sheehan’s room, fearing that she might try to escape and might have other weapons.
With guns drawn, they went in. They testified later that she came at them with a knife, and that they tried to subdue her with pepper spray but that she kept advancing toward them with the knife in hand. The officers fired their weapons, hitting Sheehan five or six times. She survived the wounds."
Law enforcement's "public duty doctrine" might apply here. Did the woman pose an immediate public danger beyond the walls of her room? The social worker, who should have knocked before entering, called for police assistance to help restrain an obviously disturbed individual. There are reasonable exceptions to overriding a person's individual rights. Dangerous mental incompetence is one.
ReplyDeleteSee http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=1172&issue_id=52007