PA Court Rejects Intelligent Design In The Classroom
I’d much rather live in a world where this wasn’t even a debate, but a victory is a victory.
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What Bill Of Rights?
January 11th, 2006 by Oskar Kennedy
Good news! Congress has decided to slay the trolls on your blog by making it a crime to annoy anyone on the Internet.
And they only had to ignore that pesky freedom of speech to do it.
Did you know?
February 24th, 2006 by Oskar Kennedy
The state of Massachusetts has an Official Donut.
… I want to have an official donut.
Going Out Smells Nicer
June 15th, 2006 by Oskar Kennedy
Philadelphia City Council has finally passed a smoking ban for bars and restaurants. Pending the Mayor’s signature, it could go into effect by January.
Knock Knock… Or Not
June 15th, 2006 by Oskar Kennedy
In a 5-4 ruling that “clearly signals the court’s conservative shift following the departure of moderate Sandra Day O’Connor,” (AP via CNN.com) the Supreme Court has ruled that police officers bearing a warrant can enter a home and seize evidence without knocking. Prior to the decision, courts had often ruled that failure by police to knock and announce themselves before entering a home put them in violation of the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches.
The Court ruled 5-4 that evidence seized in the search of a Detroit man’s home remained admissible, despite the admission by police that they did not knock prior to entering the home. Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said that suppressing the evidence in question was too severe a penalty, despite what he called the “preliminary misstep.”
The question, then, is what penalty remains? Suppressing evidence gained from an illegal or improper search is a fairly standard practice. It’s a punishment that can undermine or destroy a criminal prosecution, and it puts following proper procedure in the best interest of the police themselves. Why would they expend the effort to get a warrant, and undertake a potentially dangerous entry into a suspect’s home, only to void any gathered evidence by conducting their search improperly?
This ruling removes that check on law enforcement; “it weakens, perhaps destroys, much of the practical value of the Constitution’s knock-and-announce protection,” as Justice Breyer wrote in the dissenting opinion. It also flies in the face of 90 years of Supreme Court precedent. Can you say “activist judges?”
