First sign of shift...

The first sign of the conservative shift on the Supreme Court was felt today in a decision that likely would've come out differently with Sandra Day O'Connor on the bench. The court ruled that evidence seized after police entered a home without knocking was admissible. The officers did have a warrant, but previously, they had to knock and then wait a "reasonable" amount of time before entering the home, unless they were invited in.

This particular decision is not really going to change the world much, but it will be interesting to see if law enforcement officials are continually given more and more leeway to act however they please under the new court makeup. Then again, if law school has taught me anything, it's that police can pretty much do whatever they want anyway. I mean, even if this case had come out differently, the only ramifications would be that the evidence the officer's recovered would be inadmissible. I'm sure the officers would be upset about that for about, oh, 3 seconds. They would then move on with their lives and forget it even happened.