The Supreme Court reversed the 9th Circuit on a search warrant case in an opinion released today. The vote was 9-0, with Justice Souter writing the Court's opinion. According to AP:
LaShawn Banks was taking a shower when masked and heavily armed officers broke into his Las Vegas apartment in 1998 looking for drugs.Now, I don't care much for the drug war, but this does seem to be yet another case of common sense prevailing over the outside-the-mainstream 9th Circuit judges. Oh, what about Mr Banks? What happened after his privacy was "invaded" 40 seconds too soon?
The Supreme Court used his case to clarify how long police must wait before breaking into a home to serve a warrant. The court ruled 9-0 that if police had waited any longer than 20 seconds, a drug suspect could be flushing evidence down the toilet....
Justice David H. Souter, writing for the court, said that because police believed there were drugs in his apartment, officers had more reason to rush.
"Police seeking a stolen piano may be able to spend more time to make sure they really need the battering ram," Souter wrote.
The Las Vegas police and federal officers found 11 ounces of crack cocaine and three guns during the raid.UPDATE: Professor Volokh has more Posted by Kevin Murphy at December 2, 2003 09:02 AM | TrackBack