⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Seventh Circuit hears Brandon Johnson's challenge to a police search of his girlfriend's home. In January 2020, Chicago officers were investigating a woman's report that Johnson had threatened her with a gun. His girlfriend let them into the home, where children were present, and gestured toward the stairs while discussing whom they could speak to. Some officers went upstairs with her; others went to a rear room on the first floor and found Johnson. A gun was recovered during a later patdown. Johnson asked that the gun evidence be excluded from his federal prosecution, but the district judge refused. The key question here is whether officers could enter that downstairs room in the first place. Johnson's lawyer will argue that the permission covered going upstairs to speak with people there, not searching the first floor. The government's lawyer will argue that she gave broader permission, and that the gun report and music from the back room justified a limited officer-safety sweep. Listen for what the resident's words and gestures reasonably allowed, and whether officer safety provided a separate reason to enter that room.

United States v. Brandon Johnson (No. 25-2451) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, argued November 3, 2026.