Karlsruhe - Teacher successful with complaint about home search
A teacher has won his appeal against a search of his home. The search warrant violated the complainant's fundamental right to inviolability of the home and was disproportionate, the First Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court announced on Friday, thus upholding the complaint of the civil servant teacher.
The public prosecutor's office had investigated the teacher on suspicion of insulting him. It had accused him, as a participant in a rally, of calling two police officers deployed there "shitheads" and "beating cops". In a statement, the teacher stated, among other things, that he was a civil servant on active duty. The Heilbronn district court then ordered a search of his home in November 2021. The aim was to determine the teacher's personal and financial circumstances. The order was executed in January 2022.
The teacher allowed the officers into his home and handed over his most recent salary statements and income tax return. There were no further searches. A main hearing took place in January 2023, at the end of which the proceedings were discontinued in return for payment of a fine.
According to the Constitutional Court, it was right to obtain information about the teacher's income in order to be able to determine the daily rate for any legal consequences. "However, the search order was disproportionate in this case. In view of alternative investigative measures that protected fundamental rights, a search of the complainant was disproportionate to the seriousness of the offense being prosecuted here." For example, it would have been obvious and respectful of fundamental rights to question the complainant about his personal and financial circumstances via his defense lawyer.
Communication from the Federal Constitutional Court
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- The teacher's complaint against the disproportionate search warrant issued by the public prosecutor's office was heard at the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.
- The search of the teacher's home, conducted by the police based on the search warrant, infringed upon his fundamental right to inviolability of the home, according to the Federal Constitutional Court.
- The Federal Constitutional Court in Germany upheld the teacher's complaint, ruling that the search warrant was a violation of his constitutional rights.
- The public prosecutor's office in Baden-Württemberg had sought a search warrant to investigate the teacher for allegedly insulting police officers at a rally.
- The Federal Constitutional Court noted that while obtaining information about the teacher's income was necessary for determining any legal consequences, the search of his home was disproportionate and could have been avoided through alternative investigative measures.
- The judge stated in her ruling that a more respectful approach, such as questioning the teacher about his personal and financial circumstances through his defense lawyer, would have been more appropriate than a home search.
Source: www.stern.de
