Kentucky Supreme Court strikes down Lexington’s no-knock warrant ban

FRANKFORT, Ky. (ABC36 NEWS NOW) – The Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled that Lexington’s ordinance banning no-knock warrants is unconstitutional because it conflicts with state law.

In its decision published Thursday, the Court said Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government’s 2021 ordinance prohibiting police from ever seeking a no-knock warrant “conflicts, pure and simple” with Senate Bill 4, the state law that allows such warrants under strict limits. According to the ruling, the ordinance is “null, void, and of no effect” because it forbids what state law expressly permits.

The justices noted that SB 4, passed in 2021, created significant guardrails: no-knock warrants may only be issued when there is clear and convincing evidence involving violent offenders or threats to life or evidence, must be approved by a supervising officer, and can only be executed between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. unless exigent circumstances exist.

The ruling reverses the Kentucky Court of Appeals, which had left questions open about whether the ordinance conflicted with state law. It also ends the Fraternal Order of Police Bluegrass Lodge #4’s challenge to the ban, siding with the union’s argument that Lexington overstepped its authority.

A dissent from Justice Keller, joined in part by Justice Bisig, argued the ordinance was not preempted and should have been weighed against collective bargaining issues. The majority, however, concluded that local governments cannot “make illegal what the statute declares is legal.”