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Supreme Court: Police Can Do No-Knock Searches
And this is just the beginning of what we can expect from this Supreme Court. No doubt this ruling will encourage a more cavalier attitude from law enforcement in general. Hey, it's a-ok once you get the high five from the "High Five!"
(AP) WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court made it easier Thursday for police to barge into homes and seize evidence without knocking or waiting, a sign of the court's new conservatism with Samuel Alito on board.The court, on a 5-4 vote, said judges cannot throw out evidence collected by police who have search warrants but do not properly announce their arrival.
It was a significant rollback of earlier rulings protective of homeowners, even unsympathetic homeowners like Booker Hudson, who had a loaded gun next to him and cocaine rocks in his pocket when Detroit police entered his unlocked home in 1998 without knocking.
The court's five-member conservative majority, anchored by new Chief Justice John Roberts and Alito, said that police blunders should not result in "a get-out-of-jail-free card" for defendants.
Dissenting justices predicted that police will now feel free to ignore previous court rulings requiring officers with search warrants to knock and announce themselves to avoid running afoul of the Constitution's Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches.
"The knock-and-announce rule is dead in the United States," said David Moran, a Wayne State University professor who represented Hudson. "There are going to be a lot more doors knocked down. There are going to be a lot more people terrified and humiliated."
[...]
Four justices complained in the dissent that the decision erases more than 90 years of Supreme Court precedent.
"It weakens, perhaps destroys, much of the practical value of the Constitution's knock-and-announce protection," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for himself and Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
- Ted Kahl's blog
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This court
Is going to be a nightmare. With Roberts, Alito, and Scalia, we are going to have problems with this court for years to come. This is a disgraceful ruling and ties right in with the wiretapping as stripping Americans of Civil Rights. How can anyone see any good in this? I just don't understand how these far right lunatics think anyone gains when Civil Rights are lost. It pretty much leaves me at a loss for words.
Own Your Home? You're Now a Renter
This move, combined with the prior Supreme Court ruling, Kelo v. New London, which gave local governments the right to take your home for private development, clinches the deal: even if you own your home, it's not your castle - you can, at any moment, be intruded upon in direct contravention of Article IV of our national Constitution: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Welcome to your new fascist "republic."
No-knock searches...now are
No-knock searches...now are ok...and what about Bush's warrantless wiretaps? And then, what next? Warrantless, no-knock searches???
Only The Beginning
Wait till they uphold Bush's Unitary Authority in time of war without end. We should be stocking up on velvet...
50 Ways To Dump The Dubya
Love Songs From Ground Zero
This is how police states operate.
What's next?
The answer to the age-old
The answer to the age-old quandry: "Do you close the bathroom door even if no one is home?" has just been settled.
Not only do you need to close it, but now you should lock it as well.
LOL - that's very good,(and
LOL - that's very good,(and true).
Wahoo, I really like those quotes
I meant to tell you that when I first
read this new one,
Keep 'em coming, they'rrre Grrreat!
( Tony the Tiger impression)
btw; your post rocks, too!
;-)
bathroom door
Submarine USS Wahoo ss238
That is a 'pisser'
One by one, little by little, more and more this administration
and the constipated conservative republican congress
work to slowly rip the US Constitution to threads, soon
it will be nothing more then the paper it was written on.
----------------------------------------------------------
"The forces of violence and the forces of nature compel Man to reach out toward new horizons, where peace and sanity may flourish, where there is room to grow. But before we run, should we not first make certain that we have done all that can be done here to end madness, quiet the disturbers of peace, and make room for those who need so little to grow in?"
Damn! That's Funny!
Yep, close it, lock it, and clip it.
Let me get this straight
Citizens can own and carry guns and they have the right to protect themselves and their property, unless it turns out that the intruders are unannounced police? I wonder how long before a cop gets shot?
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross." ~ Sinclair Lewis
In a time of deception telling the truth is a revolutionary act. ~ George Orwell
No-knock searches
What if they have the wrong house? What if I am sleeping naked? What if I think they are criminals and shoot?
Note: Complaint about censorship removed...;-)
Censorship is what the BA does
They're the government. This is a private site. I didn't see what you say was removed but I can tell you that if it was something that would make Homeland Insecurity start snooping into the brand of underwear I buy because I read/post here, I'm glad it was removed.
Sick and tired of War and Fleece, yet? Vote democrat!
The link to another web site
The link to another web site was removed from your post because it was a commercial site and offered merchandise for sale. Also, because the first post on the page you linked to supported the no-knock SCOTUS sell out. Enforcing blog Rules is not censorship, and the gist of your post was not changed.
See the Rules here: http://www.democrats.com/rules