State leaders request Supreme Court reconsider 4th Amendment ruling

Several state officials have asked the Indiana Supreme Court to reconsider a recent opinion.

In Barnes v. State, the Supreme Court ruled that the common law right to resist unlawful police entry into a home, which dates back to the Magna Carta of 1215, is no longer a right in the state of Indiana.

In the case, an individual named Richard L. Barnes was asked to leave his home by his wife after a domestic disturbance. The police arrived and upon seeing Barnes angry, they attempted to enter the house.

Barnes slammed the door in their face in an attempt to prevent the police from entering.

State Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, Speaker of the Ind. House of Representatives Brian Bosma, Gov. Mitch Daniels and Attorney General Greg Zoeller have asked the state Supreme Court to reconsider its opinion.

Sen. Long said he thought the decision was a major overreach.

“You can go almost back to the Magna Carta and find the concept of ‘a person’s home is their castle,’” Long said.

He said he sees the decision as an infringement upon citizens’ basic civil liberties and right to privacy.

But Craig Bradley, an IU Maurer School of Law professor and expert on the Fourth Amendment, said the decision was “sound” and that “people have legal remedies if the police enter their house illegally.”

It gets rid of some common law precedent, Bradley said, “but back in the time that this precedent was set, people did not have these remedies.”

Bradley said today, evidence may be suppressed by a court if it was obtained illegally.

But state officials are upset that the Supreme Court chose to throw out what it views as a key civil liberty when the decision could have been more narrow.

“Clearly, the Supreme Court could have narrowly-tailored this decision to deal with the circumstances in this case,” Sen. Long said. 

Sen. Long and Rep. Bosma have also asked that the Supreme Court reconsider the ruling and make an exception to the right for domestic disturbance situations like the one decided in the case.

“That would have at least made some sense,” Sen. Long said.

Attorney General Greg Zoeller also said in a statement that a rehearing would “allow for a more narrow ruling” to apply to the specific circumstances of this case.

Speaker Bosma also asked in a press release that the decision be reconsidered to more narrowly tailor the decision to domestic disturbances. He also said that the language used in the decision “unintentionally erased hundreds of years of common law precedent.”

As it stands now, the decision is “stunning in its breadth. I don’t know why they chose to go there,” Sen. Long said. 

State officials have also expressed concern that the ruling seemed to ignore a relevant Indiana law.

The "No Retreat" law, which was signed in 2006, says that a “person is justified in using reasonable force, including deadly force, against another person" to stop someone’s unlawful entry into their residence (IN Code 35-41-3-2).

“No where does there say there’s an exception for the police, for a warrant-less break in by the police,” Sen. Long said.

Gov. Daniels also said in a statement he was “puzzled by the ruling” because it seemed to ignore the “No Retreat” law.

If this decision stands, it would catch Indiana up with many other states, such as Wisconsin, which have also ruled that residents do not have a right to resist unlawful police entry.