Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-157_8mjp.pdf
Page Number: 17.0

Cite as:  593 U. S. ____ (2021) 

5 

KAVANAUGH, J., concurring 

and  repeatedly  fails  to  answer  his  phone  throughout  the 
day  and  night.  A  concerned  relative  calls  the  police  and 
asks the officers to perform a wellness check.  Two officers 
drive  to  the  man’s  home.    They  knock  but  receive  no  re-
sponse.  May the officers enter the home?  Of course. 

Again, the officers have an “objectively reasonable basis”
for  believing  that  an  occupant  is  “seriously  injured  or 
threatened with such injury.”  Brigham City, 547 U. S., at 
400, 403.  Among other possibilities, the elderly man may 
have fallen and hurt himself, a common cause of death or 
serious  injury  for  older  individuals.    The  Fourth  Amend-
ment does not prevent the officers from entering the home
and checking on the man’s well-being.2 

To be sure, courts, police departments, and police officers 
alike must take care that officers’ actions in those kinds of 
cases are reasonable under the circumstances.  But both of 
those examples and others as well, such as cases involving 
unattended  young  children  inside  a  home,  illustrate  the
kinds  of  warrantless  entries  that  are  perfectly  constitu-
tional  under  the  exigent  circumstances  doctrine,  in  my
view. 

With those observations, I join the Court’s opinion in full. 

—————— 

2 In 2018 in the United States, approximately 32,000 older adults died
from falls.  Falls are also the leading cause of injury for older adults.  B. 
Moreland,  R.  Kakara,  &  A.  Henry,  Trends  in  Nonfatal  Falls  and  Fall-
Related Injuries Among Adults Aged ≥ 65 Years––United States, 2012– 
2018, 69 MMWR 875 (2020).