Trump DOJ quietly rescinded limits on ‘no-knock’ warrants days before anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s death
TheGrio...
“It will very likely result in more innocent people being injured or killed, as Breonna Taylor was just six years ago,” said Beatriz Beckford of MomsRising.
Today marks the six-year anniversary of Breonna Taylor‘s police-involved shooting death in Louisville, Kentucky, which, along with the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, sparked global Black Lives Matter protests, drawing millions to the streets demanding the end of racial bias in policing and reforms to law enforcement agencies across the country.
Days earlier, however, a federal policy enacted in 2022 in honor of Taylor was quietly rescinded by the Trump administration. On March 2, Todd Blance, the Deputy Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice, issued a memo informing top supervisors and U.S. attorneys that “no-knock” entries are now more broadly permissible.
“We must allow our brave men and women in law enforcement to carry out their duties to the fullest extent permitted by law,” Blanche said in the memo.
The move is a departure from May 2022, when President Joe Biden signed an executive order limiting the use of unannounced entries, often referred to as “no-knock entries,” and providing guidance to ensure the safe execution of announced entries. The order also required public reports on the number of no-knock entries and the detailed accounts of circumstances, specifically when a person is injured.
Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT worker, was fatally shot on March 13, 2020, by Louisville police during a botched “no-knock” execution while she was sleeping inside her home. Her fatal shooting ignited a rallying call for police accountability and racial justice. Though Congress failed to negotiate a bipartisan legislation named after George Floyd that would’ve enacted several federal reforms, Biden’s EO, while limited in its scope compared to the Floyd bill, was welcomed by civil rights groups and community leaders.
Ahead of signing the 2022 executive order and speaking to a room of attendees that included the families of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, President Biden said, “The families here today and across the country [have] had to ask why this nation, why so many Black Americans wake up knowing they could lose their life and, of course, just living their life today, simply jogging, shopping, sleeping at home.”
Community organizations blasted the Trump administration’s decision to roll back the progress made on the federal level to curb police abuses and police-involved deaths.
“Six years to the day after Breonna Taylor was killed, the Trump administration is weakening federal limits on the very tactic that led to her death,” said Nadine Smith, president and CEO of Color Of Change.
Smith told theGrio, “When armed officers burst into a home without warning, people inside cannot tell the difference between police and intruders. Breonna’s boyfriend fired a single shot, believing they were under attack. Police responded with more than 30 rounds, killing her. Imagine armed strangers crashing through your door while you sleep.”
The racial justice leader added, “No-knock warrants turn that terror and instinct to defend yourself into a death sentence. Color Of Change will keep fighting until no-knock warrants are ended and real accountability becomes law.”
Beatriz Beckford, National Director for Youth & Family Justice at MomsRising, said the group is “deeply disturbed” by the Trump administration’s move, calling it a “reckless decision” to rescind the “commonsense restrictions” on no-knock warrants.
“This action is callous and shameful. It will very likely result in more innocent people being injured or killed, as Breonna Taylor was just six years ago when police officers entered her Louisville home without knocking and shot and killed her as she slept,” said Beckford. “That botched and deadly raid could very likely have been avoided if police had simply knocked before entering.”
While federal legislation on police reform has seen little progress, state and local governments have adopted several reforms, including in Breonna Taylor’s home state of Kentucky. Following Taylor’s death, Democratic Governor Andy Beshear signed a bipartisan bill that limited no-knock warrants in 2021. Grassroots advocacy work led by organizations like Campaign Zero has led to at least 24 states passing use-of-force legislation to reduce police violence, six states and two cities adopting more restrictive no-knock raid laws, and Maryland’s landmark repeal of its Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, which heavily protected police officers from disciplinary action.
But the fight for federal police reform isn’t over. In December 2025, Democrats, led by lawmakers like U.S. Senator Cory Booker and Reps. Yvette D. Clarke and Jasmine Crockett reintroduced the Breonna Taylor Act, which would ban no-knock warrants.
“What happened to Breonna Taylor was a profound failure of our justice system — one that we have a moral responsibility to correct. In the years since her murder, the need to confront the issue of no-knock warrants has only intensified,” the Congressional Black Caucus said in a statement at the time. “No American should fear that at any moment, law enforcement could enter their home unannounced. And no parent like Tamika Palmer should be forced to endure the grief of losing her child to a system that failed her.”
The CBC added, “Breonna Taylor’s life mattered, and her story demands action. It is our duty to ensure that what happened to her never happens again—to any family, in any community, anywhere in this country.”
After a Kentucky grand jury failed to indict the Louisville officers involved in Taylor’s death specifically for her killing, President Trump was asked whether he thought justice was served.
“Perhaps justice was not served by the decision that was rendered by the grand jury in Kentucky…my message is that I love the Black community and I’ve done more for the Black community than any other president…with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln,” said Trump.