Anyone who has followed this blog for any length of time knows that our favorite movie is Australia's The Castle (yes, eminent domain abuse can be funny!)
But did you know where the idea that your home is your castle comes from? Like a lot of things, the source is our old friend, Lord Edward Coke (pronounced "cook" or "kook" depending on who you ask). In Semaynes Case, 5 Coke R. 91 (K.B. 1604) he wrote for the court the famous passage above, "[t]hat the House of every one is to him his (a) Castle and Fortress, as well for his Defence against Injury and Violence, as for his Repose ..."
You often hear of the "Castle doctrine" being used to describe the right of self-defense without the need to retreat in one's home. But it is also supports the idea that government agents cannot simply bust down the doors in civil cases, and that it is no crime to defend your castle with lethal force in certain circumstances.
But we view the vibe of the castle doctrine more broadly, as the source of the idea that ownership of a home is something special, a notion the U.S. Constitution recognizes, both expressly and implicitly. See, e.g., U.S. Const. amend. III (“No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”); U.S. Const. amend. IV (“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated . . .”); U.S. Const. amend. V (“nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”); U.S. Const. amend. XIV (“nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”); Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, 562 (2003) (“Liberty protects the person from unwarranted government intrusions into a dwelling or other private places. In our tradition the State is not omnipresent in the home.”).
We end on this note. One of the great things about spending a lot of time at the William & Mary Law School is that it owns much of the original law library of the nation's first lawprof, George Wythe. And his collection includes Coke's Reports, which sits behind glass in the rare book room. You may not be able to thumb through the actual books, but thanks to technology, Wythe's entire collection has been digitized and cataloged in the cheekily-named Wythepedia, so you can do so virtually.
So browse away. You may find other gems.
