Supreme Court Report

Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →

Constance Westfall v. Jose Luna, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, No. 21-10159 · judgment August 12, 2022


Certiorari denied · June 26, 2023
Pre-decision estimate: 4% cert probability

Before the decision, roughly the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a Fifth Circuit decision below, a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition), and counsel who has filed here before.

Questions presented

  1. Whether the “knock-and-talk” exception to the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unlawful entry onto a person’s property permits police officers to enter a person’s property at 2:15 a.m., without a warrant, search and sniff around the curtilage of the home, bang loudly and repeatedly on the person’s front door—and have dispatch call the person’s home phone and order the person’s 14-year-old son to “go answer the door”—until someone finally answers the door at 2:24 a.m.

  2. Whether a person’s “consent” to search their home, given after an unlawful knock-and-talk and in response to a coercive interrogation—with no intervening circumstances—can constitute “an independent act of free will.”

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Jason Paul Steed
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, LLP

For respondent

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Jun 26 2023
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Jun 06 2023
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 6/22/2023.
  3. Apr 21 2023
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due May 25, 2023)