The Supreme Court ruled this week that police can conduct warrantless searches on a property if one of the tenants consents. The 6–3 vote stems from a 2009 Los Angeles case involving robbery suspect Walter Fernandez, who refused to let police inside his home. Noticing that his girlfriend was bloodied and bruised, officers removed Fernandez on suspicion of domestic abuse, and were then let in by his girlfriend. Fernandez’s lawyers argued that their client was protected from the warrantless search under the Fourth Amendment, but justices ruled that when one of the tenants is absent, another one is free to make the decision—even if police are the ones who removed the objecting tenant.
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