ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg reports.
NINA TOTENBERG: Joshua Farley, the assistant attorney general of Kentucky, told the justices that the smell of marijuana gave police probable cause to believe a crime was occurring in the apartment. And since police heard movement inside after they knocked, they lawfully broke in to prevent evidence from being destroyed.
NORRIS: Does that mean that every two weeks police can walk through an apartment building where there's been previous drug activity, knock on every door, and if they hear noise, break in?
TOTENBERG: Yes, as long as they have separate probable cause to believe a crime is occurring. Here, it was the smell of marijuana.
J: So they sniff at every door, and if there's noise after they knock, they can break in?
TOTENBERG: It would be perfectly fine for the officers to do that.
J: The smell of marijuana is enough to get a warrant. In our system, there's a strong presumption that the Fourth Amendment requires a warrant. So why didn't the police do that instead of knocking and alerting the people inside?
J: But Justice Kagan worried about eviscerating the warrant requirement in the Constitution.
SIEGEL: Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.