Mr. Chief Justice, may it please the court.

I'm Amy Swearer.

And I'm John Carlo Conoparo.

And welcome to SCOTUS 101, where we break down what's happening at the Supreme Court,

what the justices are up to, and other things related to our favorite branch of government. Welcome to another episode of SCOTUS 101.

This week I'm joined by my friend and me center colleague, Zach Smith, who's filling in for

Amy.

Thanks so much for letting me join you today, G.C. I appreciate the opportunity to be here.

Wow, thank you for joining us.

So this week, the court is, once again, not holding oral arguments, but it did decide to consider

two new cases later in the term.

The first case is Kenealya v. Strom.

Now, this case concerns the so-called community caretaking exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant

requirement and will decide whether that exception applies to the home. The community caretaking

exception allows police to undertake a warrantless search or seizure if they are exercising so-called

caretaking functions that are unrelated to investigating crimes.

So, for example, in the case that created this exception, Katie v. Dombrowski,

the police were allowed to conduct a warrantless search of a car trunk that was conducted incident towing the car after it was involved in an accident.

In this case, police entered Mr. Canelia's home after his wife called

them and asked them to perform a wellness check on him. Once inside, they seized his guns,

believing that he might be a danger to himself or others. He subsequently sued the police,

but the trial court invoked the community caretaking doctrine and dismissed the case. This was upheld on appeal,

...