The Supreme Court weighed the issue of police power to enter homes without warrant.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday weighed when police can enter homes without a warrant, with the justices making up scenarios involving elderly neighbors, a cat in a tree, a maskless social gathering and even a Van Gogh painting to help them resolve the case.

While some of the examples were lighthearted, the case concerned a man whose wife was worried that he might kill himself.

Police entered his home without a warrant and seized two handguns. The man said a ruling against him would give police a blank check to enter homes without a warrant if they were performing a “community caretaking” function.

The case heard by the justices involved a Rhode Island couple, Edward and Kim Caniglia. In 2015, during an argument in their home in Cranston, Edward Caniglia put a gun on their home’s dining room table and told his wife: “Why don’t you just shoot me and get me out of my misery?”

The weapon turned out to be empty, and Kim Caniglia ultimately spent the night at a motel. But she called police the next day when her husband didn’t answer her phone call. She told police she thought he might be suicidal.

Police spoke with Edward Caniglia at his home and he told officers he was fine. But he agreed to go to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, his lawyers say, after being promised that his two handguns wouldn’t be seized if he did.

After an evaluation, he was discharged, but while he was away, police entered his home without a warrant and took his guns anyway. The weapons were returned only after he sued.

The Biden administration is urging the court to side with the officers. The case is Caniglia v. Strom, 20-157.