When a police SWAT team raided Andrew Cornish’s home in Cambridge, Maryland at 4:30am, the officers were heavily armed, dressed in black, wearing helmets and goggles, and carrying battering rams. (They were investigating small-time drug possession—seriously.) They stormed the residence without announcing themselves and killed Cornish seconds later as he emerged from his bedroom in his underwear.
Cornish’s estate sued the Cambridge police. At trial, Cornish’s estate claimed that the police violated two Fourth Amendment rules. First, the police violated the knock-and-announce rule when they failed to wait more than five seconds for him to answer the door after knocking. Second, the police violated the prohibition on excessive force when they shot him to death. The jury found for Cornish’s estate on the knock-and-announce violation and against him on the excessive force violation, awarding damages to the estate.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit arrogated to itself the role of the jury—the resolution of questions of fact—and determined that because “the Officers’ illegal entry was not the legal cause of Cornish’s death,” the estate was only entitled to nominal damages to “vindicate the deprivation of Cornish’s constitutional rights.” Cornish’s estate has now appealed to the Supreme Court.
The knock-and-announce rule is an ancient one rooted in the English common law. In the early 17th century, Lord Coke noted that if a sheriff “break the house when he may enter without breaking it (that is, on request made, or if he may open the door without breaking), he is a trespasser.” That rule continues to this day: “law enforcement officers must announce their presence and provide residents an opportunity to open the door.” Hudson v. Michigan (2006).
Read more at http://www.cato.org/blog/police-militarization-leads-extreme-constitutional-violations
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