Kevin Brunner v. Megan Marie McMurry, et al.

“[C]ases involving unattended young children inside a home” fall within the exigent circumstances doctrine.1 Children need adult supervision. This case involves a police officer’s entitlement to qualified immunity for taking protective custody of a 14-year-old girl left alone in an apartment while her parents were overseas for five days. This Court recognizes “the peculiar vulnerability of children” and “their inability to make critical decisions in an informed, mature manner.”2 Consequently, “the constitutional rights of children cannot be equated with those of adults,” and the legal system should account for children’s vulnerability.3 Because a child’s age “is a fact that generates commonsense conclusions about behavior and perception,” which apply to children as a class and are self-evident to any police officer,4 a 13-year-old is an especially young child,5 and Justice Kavanaugh recognizes that a young child left alone inside a home constitutes an exigency,6 this Petition presents the following questions:

1. Whether a child left alone in a residence without adult supervision constitutes an exigent circumstance under the Fourth Amendment? 1 Caniglia v. Strom, ___ U.S. ___, 141 S. Ct. 1596, 1605

2. (Kavanaugh, J., concurring). 2 Bellotti v. Baird, 443 U.S. 622, 634 (1979). 3 Id. at 634-35. 4 J.D.B. v. North Carolina, 564 U.S. 261, 272 (2011). 5 Id. at 283. 6 Caniglia, 141 S. Ct. at 1605.