DOJ rescinds no-knock warrant limits and lets political appointees go to fundraisers

"On March 4, 2026, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche signed memo rescinding Biden administration policy limiting use of no-knock warrants by federal law enforcement, policy that Attorney General MGMerrick Garland had enacted in 2022 in direct response to death of BTBreonna Taylor. Taylor was 26-year-old Black woman shot by Louisville police in March 2020 when they executed no-knock warrant at her apartment looking for former boyfriend. No drugs were found at her home. Taylor death, along with killings of George Floyd and others, drove national reckoning with police use of force that produced Biden-era federal policy. Blanche memo replaced policy requirement that agents exhaust all alternatives before seeking no-knock warrant with more permissive standard allowing no-knock entries when agent believes there is risk of evidence destruction. Former federal prosecutors interviewed by 🌲Washington Post said new standard is so broad it could justify no-knock entry in nearly any search involving drugs, digital devices, or financial records."

"On same day, Attorney General Pam Bondi signed separate memo rescinding Garland prohibition on DOJ officials attending partisan political events. Garland had enacted that restriction to prevent appearance that federal prosecutorial authority was being wielded as political weapon. Two memos together, eliminating physical use-of-force constraints and removing political event restrictions, were Trump DOJ clearest structural signal yet about how it intended to operate. Blanche prior role as Trump personal defense attorney gave no-knock rescission specific additional edge: official who had fought to keep Trump out of federal prison was now official dismantling federal constraints on how law enforcement uses force. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who represents Dallas County and is one of most vocal House members on police accountability, told reporters: BTBreonna Taylor died because police had no-knock authority. Now they bringing it back. This is a message. It not policy. It a message about whose lives matter."

"Legal architecture of no-knock warrant authority sits at intersection of Fourth Amendment, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and department-level policy. Fourth Amendment requires warrants to be supported by probable cause and to describe specifically place to be searched and persons or things to be seized. It does not require police to knock before entering, that is common law right modified by statute, and Supreme Court 2006 Hudson v. 🚗Michigan decision held that evidence obtained in violation of knock-and-announce rule is not automatically suppressed. Biden-era policy was never codified in statute, purely DOJ policy directive, which means it could be reversed overnight, which it was. Advocates for George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which included federal no-knock ban that passed House in 2021 but died in Senate, immediately renewed calls for legislation after Blanche memo showed how quickly administrative protections could evaporate."

"Partisan event restriction rescission drew less immediate public attention than no-knock reversal but may have longer-term institutional consequences. Garland prohibition was designed to ensure that DOJ officials were not physically present at campaign events in ways that created appearance of partisan coordination, kind of coordination that became subject of post-Watergate consent decree known as Levi Guidelines, which governed DOJ political activity for decades. Bondi rescission removed formal policy barrier. Combined with Trump administration documented pattern of directing DOJ prosecutorial decisions toward political opponents, grand jury refusal to indict Democrats on sedition charges, FBI purge of agents who investigated Trump, Epstein file withholdings covering Trump-related allegations, removal of partisan event restriction was brick pulled from remaining institutional wall between Department of Justice and political campaign apparatus."