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From: reinitz@cubmol.bio.columbia.edu (John Reinitz)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: No Knock Searches (was Re: "Bad" backups)
Summary: A question for Mike and others
Keywords: No knock search, 4th amendment.
Message-ID: <1990Dec27.194246.6979@cubmol.bio.columbia.edu>
Date: 27 Dec 90 19:42:46 GMT
References: <1990Dec11.164524.1860@digibd.com> <1990Dec12.162746.1411@eff.org> <1990Dec17.171753.24860@digibd.com> <1990Dec18.020803.2058@eff.org> <1990Dec27.155327.16180@digibd.com>
Reply-To: reinitz@cubmol.bio.columbia.edu (John Reinitz)
Followup-To: misc.legal
Distribution: na
Organization: Dept. of Biology, Columbia Univ., New York, NY
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>mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin) writes:

><I prefer to deal with the abuses of authority by depriving law
><enforcement of any rational basis for gratuitous no-knock searches.


I have resisted getting involved in this, but I have a question (or two).

1) What is the history of the constitutional status of no-knock searches?

2) What _should_ be the constitutional status of no-knock searches?

I understand that as a practicing member of the bar, it is probably
unethical for Mike to advise people to obstruct justice. On the other
hand, there have been situations discussed here where the use of
deadly force against armed intruders into one's home was considered
justified.  The verbal self-identification of such intruders as police
does not seem to me to prove their identity. Police have rational
reasons for doing a variety of things, and there are also rational
reasons to restrict police power. If law enforcement can function
under the restrictions of the Miranda rule, perhaps a similar
restriction requiring display of the warrant or at least ID during a
search is a justifiable interpretation of the 4th amendment.

In short: 
	Is there any thread of scholarship on constitutional law 
that holds no-knock searches in and of themselves to be unreasonable 
search and seizure?

John Reinitz          INTERNET: reinitz@cubmol.bio.columbia.edu
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