Got a warrant? No need to knock

The new Robert's supreme court has tossed out the requirement that police must knock before serving a warrant.

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that police armed with a warrant can barge into homes and seize evidence even if they don't knock, a huge government victory that was decided by President Bush's new justices

Whats the big deal? Well aside from scaring people to death, its a significant assault on people's privacy. This Slate article illustrates the problem quite vividly.

These raids are often launched on tips from notoriously unreliable confidential informants. Rubber-stamp judges, dicey informants, and aggressive policing have thus given rise to the countless examples of "wrong door" raids we read about in the news. In fact, there's a disturbingly long list of completely innocent people who've been killed in "wrong door" raids, including New York City worker Alberta Spruill, Boston minister Accelyne Williams, and a Mexican immigrant in Denver named Ismael Mena.

Oh well..if you are not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide right?