Opinion ID: 2632598
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: There was an entry into Maland's residence.

Text: The magistrate also stated, Here I find that there was no entry [into Maland's residence]. That finding is clearly erroneous. The female officer inserted her foot into the threshold far enough to prevent Maland from closing his front door. That constituted an entry into Maland's residence under the Fourth Amendment. As the United States Supreme Court stated in Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 589-90, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 1381-82, 63 L.Ed.2d 639, 653 (1980) (citation omitted): The Fourth Amendment protects the individual's privacy in a variety of settings. In none is the zone of privacy more clearly defined than when bounded by the unambiguous physical dimensions of an individual's home  a zone that finds its roots in clear and specific constitutional terms: `The right of the people to be secure in their ... houses ... shall not be violated.' That language unequivocally establishes the proposition that `[a]t the very core [of the Fourth Amendment] stands the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion.' In terms that apply equally to seizures of property and to seizures of persons, the Fourth Amendment has drawn a firm line at the entrance to the house. Absent exigent circumstances, that threshold may not reasonably be crossed without a warrant. It was not necessary for the officer's entire body to cross the threshold in order to constitute an entry under the Fourth Amendment. [A]ny physical invasion of the structure of the home, `by even a fraction of an inch,' [i]s too much. Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27, 37, 121 S.Ct. 2038, 2045, 150 L.Ed.2d 94, 104 (2001). Once Maland attempted to terminate the conversation by closing the door, the female officer intruded into his residence in order to seize him by inserting her foot through the threshold to keep him from closing the door. That intrusion into Maland's residence was the officers' first show of authority. Police may not intrude into a residence in order to effectuate a Terry stop. If police may not make a warrantless and nonconsensual entry into a suspect's residence in order to make a routine felony arrest, Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980), they certainly may not do so in order to effectuate a Terry stop.