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Payton, Practical Wisdom, And The Pragmatist Judge: Is Payton's Goal To Prevent Unreasonable Entries Or To Effectuate Home Arrests?, Christos Papapetrou

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Comment analyzes the conflicting "objective" and "subjective" tests that courts use to determine if a law enforcement officer's entry into a suspect's home is valid following the Supreme Court's holding in Payton v. New York that an arrest warrant implicitly carries with it a right to enter a suspect's home when there is "reason to believe" it is the suspect's residence and that the suspect is inside. The Comment questions how courts should interpret the "reason to believe" standard and analyzes an approach put forth by Professor Matthew A. Edwards in his article, Posner's Pragmatism and Payton Home Arrests. …