State v. Robinson

The warrant requirement embodied in both the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, U.S. Const, amend. IV, and in paragraph 7 of Article I of the New Jersey Constitution, N.J. Const, art. T, ¶ 7, limits the power of the sovereign to enter our homes and seize our persons or our effects. A pre-existing common law requirement has been grafted onto that constitutional proscription: that, subject to limited exceptions, law enforcement must first knock and announce its purpose before it lawfully may enter a dwelling to execute a warrant.

In this appeal, we return once more to those…