By the way, something else from that ACLU site I cited (and sighted): --begin excerpt-- IN YOUR HOME 1. If the police knock and ask to enter your home, you don't have to admit them unless they have a warrant signed by a judge. 2. However, in some emergency situations (like when a person is screaming for help inside, or when the police are chasing someone) officers are allowed to enter and search your home without a warrant. 3. If you are arrested, the police can search you and the area close by. If you are in a building, "close by" usually means just the room you are in. --end excerpt-- This is why one should _never_ invite cops into a house, even for a chat. They may use nearly any grounds to make an "arrest" (again, arrest does not necessarily mean a booking, or a formal charging, just an arrest of one's freedom to move about or leave). Once an arrest has been made, they may then search the premises (as above) based on this arrest. And anything they see in other areas "in plain sight," such as bottles of pills or a rifle case, etc., may be used to expand the search. I've also heard it reported that it is _easier_ for cops to arrest a person if he steps _outside_ his house. Not sure why, but it may have to do with some reptilian brain memory of "a man's home is his castle" or even to court precedent related to the above example. In other words, arresting a person in his home opens the home up to warrantless searches "so avoid this if possible." It seems to me the ideal balance is then this: -- if cops knock and one decides to answer the door rather than hole up or shoot it out, then: -- talk to them from inside the home -- don't invite them in -- and don't step out -- keep them on the outside and oneself on the inside Of course, answering the door and, after hearing what their business is (it might be something unrelated to one's own legal status, such as a warning about an impending flood, etc.), one can and probably _should_ say "I have nothing to say to you." Then they can make the next move, either escalating things to an arrest or presenting a duly-signed search warrant (which one can check...and my idea of "checking" would mean closing my door and calling the court house to verify that the named judge did in fact sign a warrant for my address....this is what "duly signed" can only mean, that the presentee gets to check it). (I would never say "Talk to my lawyer" for two reasons. First, I don't keep a lawyer on retainer or even know the name of one. Second, lawyers bill by the quarter hour...I recall in the case of a probate matter I was involved in, that merely phoning the lawyer to ask a simple question showed up as a $75 charge on his probate fee bill. And this guy was just a probate lawyer shlub, not even a highly paid Jew criminal lawyer! There is no way I will let a nosy cop run up a tab with some shyster.) --Tim May "The State is the great fiction by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else." --Frederic Bastiat