Now that they have the majority, the Conservatives sitting on the Supreme Court are becoming more bold. Especially in issues of restricting our rights to privacy. The latest issue has to do with the so-called "knock and announce" rule that was (notice past tense) to be used when serving search warrants.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday substantially diminished Americans' right to privacy in their own homes. The rule that police officers must "knock and announce" themselves before entering a private home is a venerable one, and a well-established part of Fourth Amendment law. But President George W. Bush's two recent Supreme Court appointments have now provided the votes for a 5- to-4 decision eviscerating this rule.Source: New York Times
You see, in a Michigan case, the police announced themselves, but did not knock and entered the house. They seized a gun and some drugs. The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that this evidence was admissible in court, despite a precedent set in 1914.
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.
Source: Associated Press
It is a segment of the population that is not popular to defend; but still, this is a loss of basic Civil Rights that have been recognized for nearly a hundred years that the Supreme Court overturned. Talk about activist judges.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
