(WashPost) Court Eases 'No Knock' Search Ban
Illegally Collected Evidence Allowed
(AP?WashPost) Excerpts From Police Search Ruling
I don't believe I need say much more than Stephen Breyer in his dissent: "The question is not what police might have done had they not behaved unlawfully. The question is what they did do...Without such a rule ... police know that they can ignore the Constitution's requirements without risking suppression of evidence discovered after an unreasonable entry...That rule does help protect homeowners from damaged doors; it does help to protect occupants from surprise. But it does more than that. It protects the occupants' privacy...Could it not be argued that the knock-and-announce rule ... is simply not important enough to warrant a suppression remedy? Could the majority not simply claim that the suppression game is not worth the candle? The answer, I believe, is 'no.' That 'no' reflects history, a history that shows the knock-and-announce rule is important...Our Fourth Amendment traditions place high value upon protecting privacy in the home. They emphasize the need to assure that its constitutional protections are effective, lest the Amendment `sound the word of promise to the ear but break it to the hope.'"
Let me just add to the supposed followers of the "original intent" form of interpretation...do you really think that the founders, who had personally endured illegal searches by British troops, really meant that illegal searches were to be permitted simply because we had changed the design of the flag? Is it not possible that when they wrote the fourth amendment to LIMIT searches, they actually meant what they had said. The fourth amendment is one of the bulwarks of liberty and its erosion is yet another slip down the slope to police state. You may say, but only the guilty have anything to fear. But I say, what happens when YOUR behavior is declared illegal? As it well might be if extremists of any stripe become elected to power...
And in other news, man, I have NEVER had multiple kidney stones before. Believe me, they are NO fun. I may be going in for a bout of ultrasound to get them out of the system. Updates will follow :)
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7:02:41 AM 
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