In Fernandez v. California, the U.S. Supreme Court has clarified the conditions under which a co-tenant can consent to a voluntary search of a home.¹ Finalizing a series of cases that developed the consent doctrine as a valid exception to the search warrant requirement, the Supreme Court ruled in the Fernandez case that a co-tenant can give valid consent to search a home in the absence of another co-tenant who objected to the search, but is no longer present at the time of consent.²

However, to properly examine the facts and holding in Fernandez, a review of the development of the consent doctrine is appropriate. First and foremost, the Supreme Court has stated their rulings on consent-related cases “establish that a warrant is generally required for the search of a home.”³ Police officers are constantly forced to deal with issues of expediency to get the job done not only right, but quickly. In the often fast-paced environment of active criminal investigations, they might forget that the basic rule of law for a search is to secure a search warrant in advance. However, officers need to remember that consent, like exigent circumstances, is an exception to the warrant requirement and not the basic status of the law.