In Thompson v. Louisiana, 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a warrantless search of an entire home without consent is not justified by the arrest of a person at home, even if there's probable cause to believe that serious crime has been committed. The case arose when police officers arrested Ms. Thompson in her bedroom for selling illegal drugs and then proceeded to conduct a thorough search of her house without obtaining a warrant or receiving permission from Ms. Thompson herself or any other resident of the house. The court held that this violated the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures because it was not limited to only those areas where an officer might reasonably expect to find weapons or evidence related to the crime for which she was arrested.

In the dissenting opinion for Thompson v. Louisiana, Justice O'Connor argued that the majority's decision to suppress evidence due to a warrantless search was incorrect. She contended that while it is true that Fourth Amendment rights are personal and may not be vicariously asserted, there should be exceptions in cases where an individual has a legitimate expectation of privacy violated by government action. In this case, she believed Mrs. Thompson had such an expectation as she shared her home with her husband who consented to the search conducted by law enforcement officers after his arrest for murder. The fact that Mrs.Thompson was absent at the time of search did not diminish her expectations of privacy nor did it automatically grant police officers unrestricted access to their shared residence without obtaining a proper warrant first.