The Volokh Conspiracy - <i>Engleman v. Murray</i> and Extraterritorial Enforcement of Arrest Warrants:

Engleman v. Murray and Extraterritorial Enforcement of Arrest Warrants: The Eighth Circuit decided a very interesting Fourth Amendment case yesterday involving extraterritorial enforcement of warrants: Engleman v. Murray. The case end up creating some interesting tensions in Fourth Amendment law, so I thought I would blog a bit about it.

First, the facts. Engleman made a 911 call to report a prowler, and he gave the address of the home where he was calling as “24512 Van Fleet Road, Siloam Springs, Arkansas.” The call was routed to the Arkansas local police, who learned in the course of the call that there was an Arkansas warrant out for Engleman’s arrest. The police ended up going to the home and searching for Engleman to execute the Arkansas warrant. In the home, though, the officers were told that the home was actually inside Oklahoma, not Arkansas. Indeed, believe it or not, it turns out that while the mailbox of the home is in Arkansas — and thus the mailing address of the home is in Arkansas — the Oklahoma/Arkansas line cuts through the property and the home itself is actually located in Oklahoma. (What is this, a law school exam?) The police arrested Engleman under the Arkansas warrant, and Engleman then sued the police for violating his Fourth Amendment rights by carrying out the Arkansas warrant in Oklahoma.

The kind of facts that makes life worth living for many lawyers.