There is one ray of hope for the no-knock rule. In his concurrence, Kennedy says that a widespread pattern or practice of abusive entry is “grave cause for concern.” Translated from lawyer-ese, this underscores a threat to jurisdictions that systematically violate the no-knock requirement. That threat is class-wide Section 1983 damages under Monell v. Department of Social Services*, which makes localities liable for a pattern or practice of police violations of constitutional rights. Were a majority of the Court willing to robustly police systemic knock-and-announce violations against municipalities through the vehicle of class-wide statutory damages, that might well force some systemic reform of police practices in troubled jurisdictions. * Monell v. Department of Social Services - The United States Supreme Court held that a local government is a person that can be sued under Section 1983 of Title 42 of the United States Code: civil action for deprivation of rights. (Significance This resolution created a precedent that for the first time established local government monetary accountability for unconstitutional acts and created the right to obtain damages from municipalities in such cases) cato.org/blog/more-exclusionary-rule
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 02:24:38 +0000
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