Doran v. Eckold’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 1 district ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Officer Grant testified that exigent circumstances existed because (a) there was a “safety factor” involved in raiding drug houses, (b) there were violent, armed people in drug houses, and (e) he assumed the existence of lethal fumes from the chemicals used to produce methamphetamine. While not directly stated, the implication behind his testimony is that the police feared for their safety because the Doran house was presumed to be a methamphetamine lab. This reasoning, if allowed, would lead to a per se exception to the knock-and-announce rule for methamphetamine labs. The Supreme Court has warned against such a result. The Fourth Amendment preserves the right of privacy one has in one’s home. To overcome that privacy exception, the police interest should be specific to the individual and the place, not generalized to a class of crime.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Doran v. Eckold

2. “Here, the police supported their safety concern by pointing to the following evidence: an anonymous, uncorroborated tip that the Dorans were buying and making methamphetamine; the uncorroborated statement that the younger Mr. Doran had been arrested for illegal firearm possession; the uncorroborated statement that there were guns in the house; and drug residue in a trash bag outside the home. Thus, there was almost no certainty to most of the information the police reportedly “knew.” Had the police done even some investigation or surveillance they would have had a better understanding of whether the Dorans posed a security risk justifying a no-knock entry. Instead, they relied on very sketchy information, a rebanee we find unreasonable, and outweighed by the privacy interest the Fourth Amendment is meant to protect.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Doran v. Eckold

3. ““the police should be required to make [a showing of exigency] whenever the reasonableness of a no-knock entry is challenged.” The burden of proving exigency “is not high.” Even so, there is some flesh to the burden, and we do not think the police sufficiently demonstrated that exigent circumstances existed to justify their “dynamic entry” into the Doran home.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Doran v. Eckold