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Searches and Seizures: Dwellings Dwellings are generally most protected from the searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment. The Court has held that a person in his or her home has the highest expectation of privacy. A warrant is generally required. However, what if nobody answers the door? Can the police break-in and if yes, then how soon? What if the warrant is defective? What kinds of exigent circumstances may justify foregoing obtaining a warrant? This section deals with these and other issues. Pages: ‹1› ‹2›
A homedweller places her own privacy at risk, the Court's approach indicates, when she opens her home to others, uncertain whether the duration of their stay, their purpose, and their "acceptance into the household" will earn protection.
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In this case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court concluded that police officers are never required to knock and announce their presence when executing a search warrant in a felony drug investigation. [...] We disagree with the court's conclusion that the Fourth Amendment permits a blanket exception to the knock-and-announce requirement for this entire category of criminal activity.
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We recognized in Wilson that the knock-and-announce requirement could give way "under circumstances presenting a threat of physical violence," or "where police officers have reason to believe that evidence would likely be destroyed if advance notice were given." 514 U.S. at 936. It is indisputable that felony drug investigations may frequently involve both of these circumstances.
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The Wisconsin court explained its blanket exception as necessitated by the special circumstances of today's drug culture, 201 Wis. 2d at 863-866, 549 N.W.2d at 226-227, and the State asserted at oral argument that the blanket exception was reasonable in "felony drug cases because of the convergence in a violent and dangerous form of commerce of weapons and the destruction of drugs." Tr. of Oral Arg. 26. But creating exceptions to the knock-and-announce rule based on the "culture" surrounding a general category of criminal behavior presents [...] serious concerns.
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