Michigan v. Summers

The Court's decision made it much easier and safer for police officers to conduct searches of homes. The decision allows officers to detain the occupants of the home while a search is being conducted so that the occupants cannot interfere with the search, destroy evidence, or threaten the safety of the officers.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that the "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause." Ordinarily, police may not search a person or his property without having "probable cause" to believe that the search will reveal contraband or evidence of a crime. Likewise, the police may not seize a person, that is arrest or detain the person, without probable cause to believe that the person is committing a crime. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court has recognized certain exceptions to the probable cause requirement. In the watershed 1968 case Terry v. Ohio, the Court held that a police officer may stop a person and search him if the officer has a "reasonable suspicion" (which is a much lower standard than probable cause) that the person is armed with a weapon. In such a situation, the officer may "stop and frisk" the person for weapons. Since that decision, the Court has expanded the Terry rule to a number of other situations.

In Michigan v. Summers, the Court expanded the Terry rule to allow police to detain the occupants of a home while the home is being searched pursuant to a valid search warrant. Detroit police officers, having probable cause to believe that a house contained narcotics, secured a search warrant for the house. As the police officers arrived at the house to execute the warrant, they encountered George Summers on the front steps. The officers detained Summers while they searched the house. The officers discovered narcotics in the basement of the house and, having ascertained that he owned the house, arrested Summers. Incident to his arrest, the officers searched Summers himself, and discovered 8.5 grams of heroin in his coat pocket.

Summers was charged with possession of the heroin the police discovered in his coat pocket. Summers moved to have the evidence suppressed because his original detention by the police, from which all of the evidence discovered by the police flowed, violated the Fourth Amendment. The trial court, Michigan Court of Appeals, and Michigan Supreme Court all agreed with Summers's argument and dismissed the charges against him. The state appealed this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.