Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Ronald Smith v. Bexar County, Texas, et al.
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, No. 24-50724 · judgment June 5, 2025
Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.
Question presented
Under the 4th Amendment, a warrantless emergency mental health detention constitutes a physical seizure. Police often misconstrue ordinary street encounters with citizens as “mental crises,” and wrongfully seize the public. Police also use the Community Caretaking Function as a font for insidious criminal investigations. There is no “universal” standard which delineates the circumstances and/or legal requirements for such seizures.
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Whether Courts and Police improperly conflate subjective personal traits with true “mental illness” in the context of street encounters resulting in unlawful Emergency Mental Health Detentions?
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Whether the Community Caretaking Function has become a bountiful panacea for unlawful detentions, illegal seizures, and insidious searches by law enforcement?
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Andres Roberto Cano
Law Offices of Andres Cano
For respondent
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Proceedings
- Feb 23 2026Petition DENIED.
- Jan 14 2026DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/20/2026.
- Oct 21 2025Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due January 2, 2026)
- Aug 15 2025Application (25A184) granted by Justice Alito extending the time to file until October 21, 2025.
- Aug 07 2025Application (25A184) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from September 21, 2025 to November 19, 2025, submitted to Justice Alito.