Wilson v. Arkansas

Wilson v. Arkansas
Argued March 28, 1995
Decided May 22, 1995
Full case nameSharlene Wilson, Petitioner v. Arkansas
Citations514 U.S. 927 (more)
115 S. Ct. 1914; 131 L. Ed. 2d 976; 1995 U.S. LEXIS 3464; 63 U.S.L.W. 4456; 95 Cal. Daily Op. Service 3823; 95 Daily Journal DAR 6470; 9 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 67
Case history
PriorOn writ of cert. to the Supreme Court of Arkansas
Holding
"The "knock and announce" rule survives and must be considered when analyzing the constitutionality of a search.
Court membership
Chief Justice
William Rehnquist
Associate Justices
John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy
David Souter · Clarence Thomas
Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinion
MajorityThomas, joined by unanimous
Laws applied
Fourth Amendment

Wilson v. Arkansas, 514 U.S. 927 (1995), is a United States Supreme Court decision in which the Court held that the traditional, common-law-derived "knock and announce" rule for executing search warrants must be incorporated into the "reasonableness" analysis of whether the actual execution of the warrant is/was justified under the 4th Amendment. The high court thus ruled that the old "knock and announce" rule while not a hard requirement, was also not a dead letter.