Opinion ID: 688371
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Fredericks's Doorstep Version

Text: 15 According to Fredericks's and Thompson's statements, neither officer entered the house. Instead, when Fredericks appeared at the doorway and asked, how can I help you?, Burke informed him that he was under arrest and asked him to step outside, which Fredericks did. 16 In Payton v. New York, the Supreme Court stated that the 'physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.' 445 U.S.C. 573, 585-86 (1980) (quoting United States v. United States District court, 407 U.S. 297, 313 (1972)). Following this reasoning, we have held that it is not a fourth amendment violation for government officers to knock on an individual's door and to arrest the individual when the door is opened, even if the individual is still standing at the doorway. See United States v. Whitten, 706 F.2d 1000, 1015 (9th Cir. 1983) (a doorway ... is a public place; no warrant was required when DEA agents knocked on defendant's door and immediately arrested him when he opened the door); United States v. Botero, 589 F.2d 430, 432 (9th Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 441 U.S. 944 (179); see also United States v. Santana, 427 U.S. 38, 42 (1976) (defendant's doorway was public area, allowing warrantless arrest of defendant standing there); United States v. Berkowitz, 927 F.2d 1376, 1386-87 (7th Cir. 1991) (Payton prohibits only a warrantless entry into a home, not a policeman's use of his voice to convey a message of arrest from outside the home); Duncan v. Storie, 869 F.2d 1100, 1101-02 (8th Cir.) ([t]he doorway of an individual's home or apartment or hotel room may be a public place for purposes of making a warrantless arrest if the individual has come to stand in the doorway voluntarily), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 852 (1989); United States v. Mason, 661 F.2d 45, 47 (5th Cir. 1981) (no fourth amendment violation when defendant came to doorway as agents approached the house and was then placed under arrest); United States v. Carrion, 809 F.2d 1120, 1128 (5th Cir. 1987) (no fourth amendment violation when government agents knocked on defendant's door and arrested him when he opened the door). 1 17 Given the state of the law on this issue, the district court correctly concluded that, as of March 1992, it was not clearly established that a warrantless arrest of an individual who voluntarily appears at the doorway of his residence violates the fourth amendment. See Whitten, 706 F.2d at 1015; Botero, 589 F.2d at 432; Berkowitz, 927 F.2d at 1386-87; Duncan, 869 F.2d at 1101-02. Moreover, the officers could have reasonably believed that their actions were lawful, and thus the officers are entitled to qualified immunity. See Harlow, 457 U.S. at 818; Mendoza, 27 F.3d at 1360.