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546 Pa. 65

683 A.2d 253

Commonwealth v. Gordon

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Decided September 16, 1996

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1996-09-16

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1996-09-16

How this case has been cited

Cited by 26 later decisions — most recently November 2017 · most notably In the Interest of L.J. (2013), Commonwealth v. Hock (1999)

1 district · 25 state decisions

140199620002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

*77FLAHERTY, Justice,

¶1dissenting.

¶2The opinion authored by Madame Justice Newman is excellently written — except for the conclusion. In my view, there are more than enough indicia establishing an expectation of privacy. One is not prohibited from having more than one home and need not close or lock doors to establish it as such. Wherever one calls home is sanctuary and is given the requisite protection when occupied. I am put in mind of Lord Chatham’s statement in Parliament which might be applicable to the issue:

The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail — its roof may shake— the wind may blow through it — the storm may enter — the rain may enter — but the King of England cannot enter — all his force dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement!
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