The Fourth Amendment admits few exceptions to its stern command that police get judge-signed warrants before searching private homes. When police arrest a suspected felon in a private place, for example, they can then search the immediate premises without a warrant. But they cannot first search hundreds of homes in a blind effort to find him. In short, they must have a warrant to enter a private home unless they have "probable cause" to believe that the suspect is already there.
No such nicety troubled Baltimore's Police Commissioner Bernard J. Schmidt (since...
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