The Supreme Court on Monday gave police more leeway to break into homes or apartments in search of illegal drugs when they suspect the evidence might be destroyed.
The justices said officers who smell marijuana and loudly knock on the door may break in if they hear sounds that suggest the residents are scurrying to hide the drugs.
Residents who "attempt to destroy evidence have only themselves to blame" when police burst in, Justice Samuel Alito said for an 8-1 majority.
In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that she feared the ruling in a Kentucky case had handed the police an important new tool.
"The court today arms the police with a way routinely to dishonor the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement in drug cases," Ginsburg wrote. "In lieu of presenting their evidence to a neutral magistrate, police officers may now knock, listen, then break the door down, never mind that they had ample time to obtain a warrant."
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The justices said officers who smell marijuana and loudly knock on the door may break in if they hear sounds that suggest the residents are scurrying to hide the drugs.
Residents who "attempt to destroy evidence have only themselves to blame" when police burst in, Justice Samuel Alito said for an 8-1 majority.
In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that she feared the ruling in a Kentucky case had handed the police an important new tool.
"The court today arms the police with a way routinely to dishonor the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement in drug cases," Ginsburg wrote. "In lieu of presenting their evidence to a neutral magistrate, police officers may now knock, listen, then break the door down, never mind that they had ample time to obtain a warrant."
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Must stop those evil people who sell weed. They cut into Big Pharm's income. The cops are all about guarding corporate profits. Nothing more than the mafia at its finest.
ReplyDeleteEverything we do is like an evil corporation lashing out to enhance our bottom line. That is because that is all we are, a giant immoral corporation. Very sad.
I need to get a different door mat. Instead of
ReplyDeleteWELCOME
WELCOME POLICE
@ 3:54 - hell is already here! We are no longer free (we are slaves)....
ReplyDeleteMake that slaves with a bite 7:52. Granted the majority of the sheeple are slaves but the strong will move among them hardly noticed. Learn to operate there and you will be fine. Like any bully, the cops only go after the soft targets.
ReplyDeleteMost the useful idiots are like dogs trained with a wireless fence. Once conditioned you can turn off the power and they stay in their yard. So be your typical obamabot, they are scared of their own shadow.
ReplyDeleteThis is not the country of my father and grandfathers.
"This is not the country of my father and grandfathers".
ReplyDeleteIt isn’t the old Kansas either 8.23 Dorothy !
It’s America today .
America ,the land of the free banksters and liberty for the printing press!
The country that jails more % of its population than most of the rest of the world, in fact The USA accounts for 25% of all those in jail in the entire world.
Even China despite its huge population jails less criminals than America does. That just shows how economicaly and legaly backward that country is !
Prisons ,in now de-industrialized America are a big source of growth of the GDP,
providing lawyers, warders ,police and informers a good source of employment as the U.S. economy “recovers”.
The top judges are on the case and voted 8 to 1 to lelp change the country from the old rule by law, to law by rule thereby patriotically interpretating the old constitution in order to help this great job creating American industry.
These judges are real American economic heroes .
Homeland security is now on the job too co-ordinating American "security" and with such a known number of existing criminal American types ,like druggies, smoking dope thereby losing contact with reality ,who are probably all itching to get involved in terrorist attacks against non-crimial americans or fight the police just doing their job . Why bother with search warrants anyway