TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Katharine Heriges on Apr 7, 2017
The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that police officers’ warrantless entry onto a defendant’s property, despite “no trespassing” signs, was constitutionally permissible. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice Jeffrey Bivins opined, the Court determined that the defendant “failed to demonstrate that he had a reasonable expectation that ordinary citizens would not occasionally enter his property by walking or driving up his driveway and approaching his front door to talk with him ‘for all the many reasons that people knock on front doors.’” Justice Sharon Lee dissented, concluding police had no right to ignore the signs without a warrant.