You have greater rights in your home than you do in your car. (See chapter 11, "Automobiles," for information on car searches.) That is because the courts have decided that the law entitles people to greater privacy rights in their homes. Therefore, the police normally cannot search your home unless they have a warrant. The warrant must specify what the police are looking for and the specific areas of the house they are allowed to search. The police may search outside those specified areas in some circumstances--for example, to prevent the destruction of evidence or to ensure the safety of the police.
If the police do search without a warrant, the search is presumed invalid, so you have the right to challenge it in court. If the judge finds there was a valid exception to the warrant requirement, he or she will rule the evidence admissible. On the other hand, if there was no such exception, the exclusionary rule--which prevents illegally obtained evidence from being introduced at the trial--may prevent the evidence from being used against you.
One exception to the warrant requirement is that the police do not need a warrant to search your home if you agree to the search. Consent must be voluntary and must be given by someone who has the legal right to be in the home. Obviously, you can give consent to search your home or apartment. But you are not the only person whose consent would be valid. Your spouse could consent, as could an adult child living in your home. It is important to note that in seeking your consent, the police are not required to explain the consequences. For example, they need not tell you that any item in plain view or found during a search, if it is somehow connected to a crime, can be used against you or any other member of your household. Consenting to a search may have unexpected consequences--the police may recover evidence you did not know was in your home or was linked to a crime.
Even if you do not agree to a search, the police are permitted to search your home without a warrant if there are sufficiently exigent circumstances--that is, if there is an emergency situation in which the police have reason to believe someone's life is in danger, a suspect is about to escape, or you might destroy the evidence (flush illegal drugs down the toilet, for example) if they do not conduct the search immediately. In cases such as these, when there is no time to get a warrant from the court, the police can search your home without permission.
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