‘Exigent circumstances,’ warrantless searches and lethal force

"If a police officer is illegally attempting to enter your home, should you be legally permitted to use force to prevent him from doing so? It’s a difficult question. You don’t want to make people think they have license to decide at the scene that a search is illegal, use force against cops and then end up with casualties. Even if it were unquestionably legal, it certainly wouldn’t be advised. But the alternative is to say that citizens should be legally required to submit to illegal searches and hope that the courts will rule in their favor later. Even if the subject of the illegal search were to later win in court, which is hardly a given, an illegal search can have immediate and irreversible consequences."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/11/07/exigent-circumstances-warrantless-searches-and-lethal-force/