but even if Mr. Hudson is a criminal and an unsavory character, what have we all lost?
If you are not familiar with the case it deals with the "knock and announce" rule that prior to yesterday has been upheld by the Supreme court since 1914 and is based on case law tradition that harkens back to 13th century England's Magna Carta.
Knock and announce, in United States law of criminal procedure, is an ancient common-law principle which requires law enforcement officers to announce their presence and provide residents of an opportunity to open the door to the residence when conducting a search.
Simply stated, police and security type forces have been required to knock on a door and announce that they are the police. Just think of the number of times you have seen Lennie Briscoe on Law and Order pound on a door and scream, Police! Open up!
The purpose is based on the Fourth Amendment Right to Privacy attributes. When the framers of the Constitution put the amendment into place, they were still stinging over their experiences with the British who barged in, took over and destroyed people's homes. Over the centuries it has become a mainstay of privacy rights. Until yesterday.
The problem with the Supreme Court ruling isn't just with the destruction of the knock and announce principle. It is with the current administration that has abused rules of law and constitutional gaurantees because it believes it has the ability to do what it deems necessary to protect you and me. You and I need to be fearful of how they interpret this ruling. Very fearful.
On another level, this ruling also smacks of a precedent that the currenct administration, christianists and right wingers are vocally and forcefully fighting - activist judges. While they fear that activist judges are going to change the face of law to include same-sex marriage and other societal considerations based on other groups' agendas, they are not above doing the same thing by pressuring appointments of judges to bolster their own agendas. Sadly, they don't see this as the same thing. They importune that they are only trying to uphold the constructionist view of the Constitution. This is an agenda.
The Hudson v. Michigan ruling clearly shows for the first time that the appointments of Roberts and Alito have changed the bent of the new Court majority to a conservative one. Though they have been slow to ease into this direction with most of the Court rulings this session, the truth will and is starting to come out.
It will be interesting to see what is next. Though some people are optimists and interpret the mood of the populace as having a sway over the court, self-righteous people do not listen to anyone but themselves.
In The Lion in Winter Katherine Hepburn has a line as Eleanor of Aquitaine that sums it a lot up...
In a world where carpenters get resurrected, anything is possible.
...where's a good carpenter when you need him/her?
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