Legal Research

Supreme Court Limits the Exclusionary Rule

By mdell

"The U.S. Supreme Court limited the time-honored exclusionary rule yesterday when it held that evidence seized in a home search may still be used for trial even after police failed to "knock and announce" before entering."  Hudson v. Michigan was decided on June 15, 2006.

"The 5-4 decision also underlines the change in the makeup of the court now that Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. has replaced Sandra Day O?Connor. Hudson was one of two cases reargued this term after Alito joined the court, hinting at a 4-4 split among the justices in the wake of O?Connor?s departure. Alito likely tilted the decision toward the more restrictive use of the exclusionary rule elaborated in Justice Antonin Scalia?s majority opinion."

"The knock-and-announce rule, under which police are required to wait before entering a suspect?s residence, "has never protected ? one?s interest in preventing the government from seeing or taking evidence described in a [search] warrant," Scalia wrote. "Since the interests that were violated in this case have nothing to do with the seizure of the evidence, the exclusionary rule is inapplicable."

Excerpts from: http://www.abanet.org/journal/ereport/jn16hudson.html

The issue for "Wayne State University Law School professor David Moran, who will argue Hudson?s case, [is that] the 4th Amendment?s protection against ?unreasonable searches and seizures? is at stake. At issue...is whether evidence obtained after a knock and announce violation is the fruit of an ?unreasonable? entry, and therefore subject to suppression. ?The criminal prosecution of officers is never going to happen,? he said, citing Mapp v. Ohio (1961), which called other remedies ?worthless and futile.?  [H]e could find only two cases in which a knock and announce victim won a civil lawsuit against the police, and in those cases the victim was awarded only $1."

Excerpt from: http://docket.medill.northwestern.edu/archives/002753.php

People v. Hudson (Unpublished Michigan Court of Appeals opinion)

Hudson v. Michigan (U.S. Supreme Court Brief for Respondent)

Posted by Marin Dell

Full post as published by FSU College of Law Library Blog on June 20, 2006 (boomark / email).