Payton v. New York

These appeals challenge the constitutionality of New York statutes that authorize police officers to enter a private residence without a warrant and with force, if necessary, to make a routine felony arrest.

The important constitutional question presented by this challenge has been expressly left open in a number of our prior opinions. In United States v. Watson, 423 U. S. 411, we upheld a warrantless “midday public arrest,” expressly noting that the case did not pose “the still unsettled ques*575tion . . . 'whether and under what circumstances an officer may enter a suspect’s home to make a…