Los Angeles County, California v. Rettele
United States Supreme Court
550 U.S. 609 (2007)
Deputies (defendants) obtained a valid warrant to search a home for African-American fraud suspects, unaware the home had been sold three months earlier to white occupants Rettele, Sadler, and Hall (plaintiffs); executing the warrant, deputies ordered Rettele and Sadler, found sleeping naked, out of bed at gunpoint for one to two minutes before allowing them to dress, then apologized and left upon realizing the mistake. The plaintiffs sued for Fourth Amendment violations, and the district court granted the officers summary judgment; a divided Ninth Circuit panel reversed in an unpublished opinion.
Whether a search conducted reasonably pursuant to a validly issued search warrant violates the Fourth Amendment where the suspects moved out three months before and the new occupants are of a different race.