Free Republic

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court held a rare mid-May oral argument Thursday on the power of police to search private homes without knocking first – a major privacy-rights case likely to be decided by the vote of the court’s newest member, Justice Samuel Alito. At issue in Hudson v. Michigan is the “knock and announce” rule rooted both in the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution and Anglo-American common law. The rule says that, in normal cases, police with a search warrant must first knock and state their purpose, then wait a reasonable period, before forcing their way in. Most federal...

Sometime this spring, the Supreme Court will hand down its decision in the case of Hudson v. Michigan. At issue is whether or not police who used an illegal "no-knock" raid to enter a defendant's home can use the drugs they seized inside against the defendant at trial. To understand the importance of this case, some background is in order. As the name indicates, a "no-knock" raid occurs when police forcibly enter a private residence without first knocking and announcing that they're the police. The tactic is appropriate in a few limited situations, such as when hostages or fugitives are...