The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled this week that Anaconda police officers did not violate the Fourth Amendment when they entered a man’s home without a warrant during a suspected mental health emergency, delivering a major legal victory aligned with arguments advanced by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and sharply rejecting a dissent by Montana Supreme Court Justice Laurie McKinnon.
The decision upheld the outcome reached by the Montana Supreme Court, which had affirmed the conviction of William Trevor Case for assaulting a peace officer. However, while agreeing with the result, the nation’s high court made clear that it disagreed with aspects of the Montana court’s reasoning and took the unusual step of directly criticizing McKinnon’s dissent as extreme and wrong on the law.
The case stemmed from a September 2021 incident in Anaconda, when police conducted a welfare check after Case told his former girlfriend that he intended to kill himself and would shoot any officers who came to his home. The girlfriend contacted 9-1-1, prompting three officers to respond.
