Opinion ID: 796724
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Entries to Effect Fisher's Seizure or Arrest After 6:30 a.m.

Text: 66 Our holdings that Fisher was seized both when he was physically affected by the CS gas canisters tossed into his home and when he submitted to the officers' show of authority by agreeing at the end of the standoff to accede to police demands to come out of his home are not, however, the end of our inquiry. 67 As described above, under Payton, the warrant requirement is triggered by the officers' entry into the home for the purpose of seizing someone rather than by the seizure itself, so the timing of entry for purposes of effectuating an arrest or seizure is what matters. Payton's focus on the entry into the home as the critical constitutional factor leads to two other corollary principles central to this case: First, as this circuit and the only other one to address the question squarely have held, the Payton warrant requirement applies to situations in which officers force a suspect out of his home to arrest him, because [o]therwise, arresting officers could avoid illegal `entry' into a home simply by remaining outside the doorway and controlling the movements of suspects within through the use of weapons that greatly extend the `reach' of the arresting officers. Johnson, 626 F.2d at 757; accord Morgan, 743 F.2d at 1164. Consequently, in a standoff situation such as this one, any seizure takes place inside the home for Payton purposes as opposed to outside of it, because the police officers, through their coercive action, constructively enter into a person's home and force him outside, to be taken into custody. See Al-Azzawy, 784 F.2d at 893 & n. 1 (holding that  Payton [is] applicable ... because ... surrounding the house and ordering the suspect out [is] a `constructive entry,' and because the suspect emerged from the house only because of police coercion); Morgan, 743 F.2d at 1164. 68 Second, even if exigent circumstances existed at the time officers make an initial warrantless entry, such an entry does not excuse the officers from the warrant requirement if the arrest happens after a second, discrete entry and the exigency dissipates before then. Cf. United States v. Hackett, 638 F.2d 1179, 1185-86 (9th Cir.1980) (considering whether the exigency had dissipated between the warrantless entry into the suspect's garage and the warrantless entry into the suspect's house). Just as, under our understanding of Hodari D. the warrant requirement remains applicable to later seizures after an unsuccessful one, absent exigency, an entry pursuant to a warrant exception does not excuse all further warrantless entries for purposes of effectuating an arrest. 69 Putting these principles together, we hold that the Payton in-house warrant requirement in a standoff situation is triggered each time police take an action that (1) either itself constitutes a seizure or is designed to force a suspect from his home to submit to police authority; and (2) is sufficient to constitute an entry. Here, the officers coercively intruded into Fisher's apartment in an effort to force him to emerge after 6:30 a.m., and before he finally did emerge at 2:35 p.m. During that period, the police used CS gas, bullhorns, a flash-bang device, and a throw phone with an open microphone to prod him. Tossing in the CS gas was itself a seizure of Fisher at home, as we have already explained, and therefore necessarily an entry, and lobbing in the throw phone, with its open microphone, was also an entry. See Kyllo v. U.S., 533 U.S. 27, 121 S.Ct. 2038, 150 L.Ed.2d 94 (2001) (comparing sense-enhancing technology used to obtain information about a home's interior to physical intrusion for Fourth Amendment purposes); Silverman, 365 U.S. at 509-11, 81 S.Ct. 679 (holding that it was a physical intrusion to extend a microphone into a house). Thus, each action triggered the warrant requirement. 14 70 For each of these intrusions sufficient to trigger Payton, the officers were required to have a warrant or establish circumstances excusing the warrant requirement. As the officers in this case never obtained a warrant, the City must demonstrate that, at the time of each entry, exigent circumstances existed such that a warrant could not have safely been obtained prior to the entry. 15 71 In sum, at least some of the tactics the MERGE team used after it arrived were sufficiently coercive and intrusive to constitute entries into Fisher's home for the purpose of effectuating an arrest. Some of these tactics, indeed, involved actual, physical intrusion into Fisher's home, and may be best regarded as actual rather than constructive entries. Absent exigency, a warrant was required before those actions were taken. 16