Indiana Supreme Court Says Citizens Can't Resist Rogue Police
Citizens have "no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry [to their homes] by police officers," Indiana's Supreme Court declared May 12 in a controversial 3-2 decision, Richard L. Barnes v. Indiana.
Justice Steven David wrote for the court in the decision that "this Court is faced for the first time with the question of whether Indiana should recognize the common-law right to reasonably resist unlawful entry by police officers. We conclude that public policy disfavors any such right." Fellow Indiana Supreme Court Justice Robert D. Rucker issued a blistering dissent, claiming:
The common law rule supporting a citizen's right to resist unlawful entry into her home rests on a very different ground, namely, the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Indeed, "the physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed." Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 585 (1980). In my view it is breathtaking that the majority deems it appropriate or even necessary to erode this constitutional protection based on a rationale addressing much different policy considerations. There is simply no reason to abrogate the common law right of a citizen to resist the unlawful police entry into his or her home.