Justices Ease Limits on Police Entry
WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that police armed with a search warrant may rush into a house without giving a required warning to the occupants and may use the evidence they find there.
In a 5-4 decision, the court said it would be rash to bar evidence in a criminal trial simply because police did not wait long enough before entering, a technical violation of the "knock and announce" rule.
Criminals should not be handed a "get out of jail free card" in cases where the police have a valid search warrant, said Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the opinion for the majority.
The dissenters said the court's ruling all but repealed a decision that had protected the privacy and dignity of homeowners.
New Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. cast the decisive vote. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor heard the case when it was argued in January but retired in February before the case was decided. At that point, the court was evenly split. The case was reargued when Alito replaced her, and he became the tie-breaker.
Until Thursday, the court had usually insisted that evidence be thrown out in cases where the police violate the Constitution's ban on "unreasonable searches and seizures." This so-called exclusionary rule was among the most controversial legal developments of the 1960s, and many law-and-order conservatives continue to chafe at it.
Scalia is among them. Suppressing evidence should be "our last resort, not our first impulse," he said, and his opinion was joined in full by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Clarence Thomas and Alito.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy voted with the majority but wrote separately to emphasize that the exclusionary rule is "settled" and "not in doubt." The issue in this case, Kennedy wrote, was whether the police's failure to give a proper warning even when they had a valid warrant to enter a home, merited an extension of the exclusionary rule.
In 1995, the justices agreed unanimously that the 4th Amendment usually requires officers to knock on the door and call out "Police!" before they burst into a home. This rule helps ensure the safety of the police and the privacy of the residents, the court said then.
Officers have been advised in other cases that they should usually wait about 20 seconds after knocking and announcing their presence before trying to enter a house, but the court has said in past rulings that officers may move faster if they suspect residents are going to flush drugs down a toilet.
