If you ever wanted to know what SCOTUS has in mind for

your civil liberties:

Court Eases 'No Knock' Search Ban


By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 16, 2006

The Constitution does not require the government to forfeit evidence gathered through illegal "no knock" searches, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday, in a far-reaching ruling that could encourage police with search warrants to conduct more aggressive raids.

The 5 to 4 decision broke with the court's modern tradition of enforcing constitutional limitations on police investigations by keeping improperly obtained evidence out of court. The "exclusionary rule" has been imposed to protect a series of rights, such as the right to remain silent in police custody and the right against warrantless searches.

But the broadly worded majority opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia, joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., suggested that the nation has moved into a new era of improved policing in which such strong medicine may no longer be justified.

The ruling underscored the court's rightward shift since Alito replaced Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who seemed to disagree with Scalia about the case while she was on the court. And it once again focused attention on the pivotal role of Kennedy, a moderate conservative, who supplied a fifth vote to the majority while issuing a separate concurring opinion that disavowed a portion of Scalia's opinion and asserted that it did not portend any broader erosion of the exclusionary rule.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061500730.html

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They are falling by the wayside as we sit around letting BushCo's plans go into effect.

matter when all their privacy rights have been stripped from them? Maybe those 29%-ers will. Very depressing is, at best, an understatement.

and everything our ancestors faught and died to protect? It's like it's all being taken away very quickly. And no one seems to care.

Let's get rid of them. Post haste......

My husband and I have a very dear friend who's a legal resident alien in the US. I asked him to promise me today that he would finally "take out" his citizenship papers ASAP. He's been a legal resident since 1987 and just never bothered to take this step.

Not only did this ruling today by SCOTUS raise my hackles, the ruling yesterday from Judge Gleeson in New York on the detention of Muslims after 9/11 really got to me. I understand that the plaintiff in this particular case was an illegal resident in the US, but it just made me think "what's coming down the road?" I can honestly see the SC, as it is presently constituted, upholding Judge Gleeson's ruling and extending it to even include "resident aliens"...

Have the American people completely lost their minds??? Are they completely cluess and can't or won't see? Are they so blinded by the "boogeyman" card the Pukes have played so effectively since 9/11 that they can't acknowledge that the Constitution is being shit and pissed on before their eyes???

It's real and it's here. I could kick the spineless Dems for not blocking Alito and Roberts.

I expect stupidity from the GOP sheeple. They all should know they are responsible for selling civil rights and individual rights down the river.

Big Bro and the police state knows what is best for their safety and protection. Barf.

hunters, who ironically DON'T need a search warrant before they smash your door down.

From today's ruling, does it extend to mean that you can use deadly force against the police with impunity if they break in without knocking or announcing their identity as you have an honest belief of a home invasion?

Or wait, how about not bothering at all with the waste of time and bother with a magistrate to get a warrant. Why not let the police kick in your door because they have a "reasonable belief" you have contraband, you may hide and/or destroy the contraband, and they can get the warrant later?

In fact, the knock-and-search rule is still valid, per SCOTUS, but excluding evidence that would otherwise be admissible is, they said, too high a penalty.

Basically, they said that had the police knocked, announced, and waited more than 5 seconds, they'd have gotten the same evidence under the warrant; it's been of long-standing practice that in some instances the knock-and-announce rule is to be ignored. There's a right to proper notice and to be given the chance to comply with the police's request, but excluding the evidence isn't the proper penalty if they fail to do so. What the proper enforcement is ... that's a question.

Can you use deadly force with impunity? Not quite. But in some circumstances, yes. Prevention of injury is one of the reasons for the knock-and-announce rule, and one reason it's still in effect.

For the penalty, turn to civil suits and department-meted punishment; "professionalism and policing standards" is the 'better policing' referred to by WaPo. You can also plausibly bring a civil suit for violation of privacy and dignity. Another of the three reasons for the knock-and-announce rule.

Most of the articles on this I've seen today made little enough sense ... I finally read the damned opinion. I'm not sure I agree with it.

from the gut president. Just settle back and enjoy it. He has allowed us not to think about those terrorist cause he has them all wired and knows exactly where they are and what they are doing. With the threat of being tortured the terrorist will think twice before screwing with us on our Homeland. For your information and without bothering the Congress with getting their approval our president has been planning an attack on Iran. We can keep money coming in at an unbelievable rate bringing freedom to the Middle East, and the oil will flow freely. We can now sell all our companies, except for those that are keeping our country safe by providing our troops with supplies and stuff, to the stupid foreigners, they don't know they aren't making any money except for the CEOs. After allowing millions of illegal immigrants to come across to this country we can all sit back and let them do all the hard work. Our president has so much on his plate that he will be unable to discuss any of his future Bold and Intuitive ideas and plans, but be advised, he is Keeping America Safe.

P.S. Our president and Great Leader has all his best legal minds extremely busy revising and mostly eliminating many archaic laws that are in the Constitution.

Motherfuckers!

It was hard keeping up with all the improvements that are occuring with our government. Course the GOP talking points are pretty much the same, they are so busy keeping us safe as usual now that we have safely secured Iraq and letting the people know that we will definitely Not Cut and Run like those weak Dems that are idealess, they only complain. If we hadn't cut and run in Viet Nam it would have been a whole different thing, (like maybe 100 200 thousand dead Americans) and good thing they got in office to get the intelligence agencies all straigtened out and efficient. Do I need to say sarcasm?