http://www.theneworleanschannel.com/...83/detail.html
Text of opinion:
http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions...29-CV0.wpd.pdf
http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions...-30629-cr0.pdf
From what I can tell, this means that if a police is invited into your home, they can do a 'protective sweep' of the home, checking any area where a weapon or a person could be hiding.
The invitation into the home, together wise a 'feeling of danger', was in this case considered sufficient justification to check under the bed and look in closets. Ie, the police simply asked to enter the house, which was sufficient to justify a search of the house.
This is in contrast to the old docterine (from the second PDF).
Quote:
“ Protective Sweep?
The government argues that the seizure of the checkbook was lawful because it was discovered during a protective sweep of the hotel room. A “protective sweep” is a quick and limited search of a premises, incident to an arrest
and conducted to protect the safety of police officers or others. It is narrowly confined to a cursory visual inspection of those places in which a person might be hiding. Maryland v. Buie , 494 U.S. 325, 327, 110 S.Ct. 1093, 1094, 108 L.Ed.2d 276 (1990). The instant search
of the hotel room was not made as an incident to an
arrest and, therefore, it does not fit within the
‘protective sweep’ exception to the warrant requirement. Moreover, under the instant circumstances, the seizure of the checkbook from the wastebasket was not within the narrow ambit of a “cursory visual inspection” of a place where a person could be hiding. See Buie , 494 U.S. at 327, 110 S.Ct. at 1094.” Id . at 1035-36 (emphasis in next to last sentence added).
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This extends protective sweeps to any situation where the officer percieves danger, even if they put themselves in that danger of their own consent.
So, you gain permission to enter an apartment building from the manager. While you lack permission to enter a room, you knock on the door to an apartment. While you have no warrent, you have heard that drug dealers live within the apartment.
The knocking at the door makes the apartment dangerous, which means you can do a protective sweep of the surrounding area, in any place where a weapon or person can hide.
Am I reading the ruling wrong?