Source: https://m.openjurist.org/514/us/927
Timestamp: 2020-01-24 12:24:39
Document Index: 17435460

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 22', 'Art. 35', '§ 6', '§ 3', '§ 18', '§ 5', '§ 1163', '§ 3109', '§ 3109']

514 U.S. 927 - Wilson v. Arkansas
514 US 927 Wilson v. Arkansas
514 U.S. 927
115 S.Ct. 1914
131 L.Ed.2d 976
Sharlene WILSON, Petitioner
The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." In evaluating the scope of this right, we have looked to the traditional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures afforded by the common law at the time of the framing. See California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621, 624, 111 S.Ct. 1547, 1549-50, 113 L.Ed.2d 690 (1991); United States v. Watson, 423 U.S. 411, 418-420, 96 S.Ct. 820, 825-26, 46 L.Ed.2d 598 (1976); Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 149, 45 S.Ct. 280, 283-84, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925). "Although the underlying command of the Fourth Amendment is always that searches and seizures be reasonable," New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 337, 105 S.Ct. 733, 740, 83 L.Ed.2d 720 (1985), our effort to give content to this term may be guided by the meaning ascribed to it by the Framers of the Amendment. An examination of the common law of search and seizure leaves no doubt that the reasonableness of a search of a dwelling may depend in part on whether law enforcement officers announced their presence and authority prior to entering.
Although the common law generally protected a man's house as "his castle of defense and asylum," 3 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *288 (hereinafter Blackstone), common-law courts long have held that "when the King is party, the sheriff (if the doors be not open) may break the party's house, either to arrest him, or to do other execution of the K[ing]'s process, if otherwise he cannot enter." Semayne's Case, 5 Co. Rep. 91a, 91b, 77 Eng.Rep. 194, 195 (K.B.1603). To this rule, however, common-law courts appended an important qualification:
See also Case of Richard Curtis, Fost. 135, 137, 168 Eng.Rep. 67, 68 (Crown 1757) ("[N]o precise form of words is required in a case of this kind. It is sufficient that the party hath notice, that the officer cometh not as a mere trespasser, but claiming to act under a proper authority . . ."); Lee v. Gansell, Lofft 374, 381-382, 98 Eng.Rep. 700, 705 (K.B.1774) ("[A]s to the outer door, the law is now clearly taken" that it is privileged; but the door may be broken "when the due notification and demand has been made and refused").2
The common-law knock-and-announce principle was woven quickly into the fabric of early American law. Most of the States that ratified the Fourth Amendment had enacted constitutional provisions or statutes generally incorporating English common law, see, e.g., N.J. Const. of 1776, § 22, in 5 Federal and State Constitutions 2598 (F. Thorpe ed. 1909) ("[T]he common law of England . . . shall still remain in force, until [it] shall be altered by a future law of the Legislature"); N.Y. Const. of 1777, Art. 35, in id., at 2635 ("[S]uch parts of the common law of England . . . as . . . did form the law of [New York on April 19, 1775] shall be and continue the law of this State, subject to such alterations and provisions as the legislature of this State shall, from time to time, make concerning the same"); Ordinances of May 1776, ch. 5, § 6, in 9 Statutes at Large of Virginia 127 (W. Hening ed. 1821) ("[T]he common law of England . . . shall be the rule of decision, and shall be considered as in full force, until the same shall be altered by the legislative power of this colony"), and a few States had enacted statutes specifically embracing the common-law view that the breaking of the door of a dwelling was permitted once admittance was refused, see, e.g., Act of Nov. 8, 1782, ch. 15, ¶ 6, in Acts and Laws of Massachusetts 193 (1782); Act of Apr. 13, 1782, ch. 39, § 3, in 1 Laws of the State of New York 480 (1886); Act of June 24, 1782, ch. 317, § 18, in Acts of the General Assembly of New-Jersey (1784) (reprinted in The First Laws of the State of New Jersey 293-294 (J. Cushing comp.1981)); Act of Dec. 23, 1780, ch. 925, § 5, in 10 Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania 255 (J. Mitchell & H. Flanders comp.1904). Early American courts similarly embraced the common-law knock-and-announce principle. See, e.g., Walker v. Fox, 32 Ky. 404, 405 (1834); Burton v. Wilkinson, 18 Vt. 186, 189 (1846); Howe v. Butterfield, 58 Mass. 302, 305 (1849). See generally Blakey, The Rule of Announcement and Unlawful Entry, 112 U.Pa.L.Rev. 499, 504-508 (1964) (collecting cases).
Our own cases have acknowledged that the commonlaw principle of announcement is "embedded in Anglo-American law," Miller v. United States, 357 U.S. 301, 313, 78 S.Ct. 1190, 1198, 2 L.Ed.2d 1332 (1958), but we have never squarely held that this principle is an element of the reasonableness inquiry under the Fourth Amendment.3 We now so hold. Given the longstanding common-law endorsement of the practice of announcement, we have little doubt that the Framers of the Fourth Amendment thought that the method of an officer's entry into a dwelling was among the factors to be considered in assessing the reasonableness of a search or seizure. Contrary to the decision below, we hold that in some circumstances an officer's unannounced entry into a home might be unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.
This is not to say, of course, that every entry must be preceded by an announcement. The Fourth Amendment's flexible requirement of reasonableness should not be read to mandate a rigid rule of announcement that ignores countervailing law enforcement interests. As even petitioner concedes, the common-law principle of announcement was never stated as an inflexible rule requiring announcement under all circumstances. See Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 38, 83 S.Ct. 1623, 1632, 10 L.Ed.2d 726 (1963) (plurality opinion) ("[I]t has been recognized from the early common law that . . . breaking is permissible in executing an arrest under certain circumstances"); see also, e.g., White & Wiltsheire, 2 Rolle 137, ---, 81 Eng.Rep. 709, 710 (K.B.1619) (upholding the sheriff's breaking of the door of the plaintiff's dwelling after the sheriff's bailiffs had been imprisoned in plaintiff's dwelling while they attempted an earlier execution of the seizure); Pugh v. Griffith, 7 Ad. & E. 827, 840-841, 112 Eng.Rep. 681, 686 (K.B.1838) (holding that "the necessity of a demand . . . is obviated, because there was nobody on whom a demand could be made" and noting that White & Wiltsheire leaves open the possibility that there may be "other occasions where the outer door may be broken" without prior demand) .
Indeed, at the time of the framing, the common-law admonition that an officer "ought to signify the cause of his coming," Semayne's Case, 5 Co.Rep., at 91b, 77 Eng.Rep., at 195, had not been extended conclusively to the context of felony arrests. See Blakey, supra, at 503 ("The full scope of the application of the rule in criminal cases . . . was never judicially settled"); Launock v. Brown, 2 B. & Ald. 592, 593, 106 Eng.Rep. 482, 483 (K.B.1819) ("It is not at present necessary for us to decide how far, in the case of a person charged with felony, it would be necessary to make a previous demand of admittance before you could justify breaking open the outer door of his house"); W. Murfree, Law of Sheriffs and Other Ministerial Officers § 1163, p. 631 (1st ed. 1884) ("[A]lthough there has been some doubt on the question, the better opinion seems to be that, in cases of felony, no demand of admittance is necessary, especially as, in many cases, the delay incident to it would enable the prisoner to escape"). The common-law principle gradually was applied to cases involving felonies, but at the same time the courts continued to recognize that under certain circumstances the presumption in favor of announcement necessarily would give way to contrary considerations.
In Miller, our discussion focused on the statutory requirement of announcement found in 18 U.S.C. § 3109 (1958 ed.), not on the constitutional requirement of reasonableness. See 357 U.S., at 306, 308, 313, 78 S.Ct., at 1194, 1195, 1197-1198. See also Sabbath v. United States, 391 U.S. 585, 591, n. 8, 88 S.Ct. 1755, 1759, n. 8, 20 L.Ed.2d 828 (1968) (suggesting that both the "common law" rule of announcement and entry and its "exceptions" were codified in § 3109); Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 40-41, 83 S.Ct. 1623, 1633-1634, 10 L.Ed.2d 726 (1963) (plurality opinion) (reasoning that an unannounced entry was reasonable under the "exigent circumstances" of that case, without addressing the antecedent question whether the lack of announcement might render a search unreasonable under other circumstances).