Supreme Court Sides With Police In Warrantless Search

[Purveyor]

(05-16) 07:26 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

The Supreme Court has ruled against a Kentucky man who was arrested after police burst into his apartment without a search warrant because they smelled marijuana.

The justices, by an 8-1 vote Monday, reversed a Kentucky Supreme Court ruling that threw out the evidence gathered when officers entered Hollis King's apartment.

The court said there was no violation of King's constitutional rights because the police acted reasonably. Only Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/05/16/national/w072608D62.DTL

[Keith Bee]

1. So which three "liberals" voted for this?

:shrug:

[former9thward]

15. Obama's two appointees -- Kagan and Sotomayer --and also Breyer

[elleng]

17. self-delete

[krawhitham]

2. The smell of marijuana has always been probable cause

Sucks because you can not prove the cop did not smell it unless no marijuana is found at the site

[LiberalFighter]

3. What needs to happen is for someone to plant some mj on a cop

and have their dog catch them with it.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

5. so you support framing innocents? How liberal/progressive of you n/t

[provis99]

6. no such thing as an innocent cop

[Dawson Leery]

7. +1

[Purveyor]

8. +2

[Bodhi BloodWave]

16. That I think tells me most I need to know about you, and the two who agreed with ya n/t

[LiberalFighter]

18. How progressive/liberal are you when you apparently think

it is okay to be framed by a cop?

If a cop thinks there is mj then it would be best to bring in a trained dog.

Cops are not infallible nor are they all trustworthy to put it lightly.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

19. I don't approve of anybody being framed, and I dare you to show me where i have supported that n/t

[boppers]

14. The cops had just purchased some crack from him....

...or so they thought.

It went down like this:
Drug buy happens on the street. Cops go after the guy, but he gets inside the building. Cops follow him, and there are two doors, one on the left, and one on the right. Pursuing cops don't know which one. The one on the left smells like pot. The cops bang on the door, no response.... but shuffling noises. Cops break in, see pot and powder cocaine, with one person still smoking, so they bust people. They also find crack cocaine and "paraphernalia" while searching the apartment.

Turns out they were after the guy who went into the door on the right, so they bust him, too.

[LiberalFighter]

4. Newspaper didn't provide much info.

[littlewolf]

9. Oh my ....

so much for the 4th amendment ... being secure and all .... shesh ....
couple this with what happened in Ind. and I wonder if SCOTUS will overturn
the Ind. ruling ....

[JTFrog]

11. Why would they overturn it?

After seeing what they did here, they seem to agree with the Indiana SC.

This is like living in a nightmare.

Just boggles my mind. Seriously.

[JTFrog]

10. What. The. Fuck.

And here I thought leaving Indiana at the end of next month might get me away from this crazy fucking shit.

You have got to be kidding me.

Ok, so we can't count on the USSC to uphold any of our constitutional rights.

1 dissented. 1... Just 1...

What in the fuck is going on?

[boppers]

13. You can read it here:

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-1272.pdf

In short, the argument is that they needed to enter to prevent destruction of evidence.... "“exigent circumstances" is the key phrase involved.

[BlueIris]

12. Sad.

Not shocking, but sad.