Your Papers, please...
Posted on 01/24/2005 9:20:02 AM PST by Lazamataz
The Supreme Court gave police broader search powers Monday during traffic stops, ruling that drug-sniffing dogs can be used to check out motorists even if officers have no reason to suspect they may be carrying narcotics.
In a 6-2 decision, the court sided with Illinois police who stopped Roy Caballes in 1998 along Interstate 80 for driving 6 miles over the speed limit. Although Caballes lawfully produced his driver's license, troopers brought over a drug dog after Caballes seemed nervous.
Caballes argued the Fourth Amendment protects motorists from searches such as dog sniffing, but Justice John Paul Stevens disagreed, reasoning that the privacy intrusion was minimal.
"The dog sniff was performed on the exterior of respondent's car while he was lawfully seized for a traffic violation. Any intrusion on respondent's privacy expectations does not rise to the level of a constitutionally cognizable infringement," Stevens wrote.
In a dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg bemoaned what she called the broadening of police search powers, saying the use of drug dogs will make routine traffic stops more "adversarial." She was joined in her dissent in part by Justice David H. Souter.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I guess we all know which way the court will be deciding when probes and sensors are devised that can peer into your house.
What a sad day for freedom.
I hate it when the dog sniffs your crotch.
.... what little freedom remains, you mean.
I have friends from other countries, a few have settled here, and without fail, they remark "You Americans think you are free. Maybe once you were, but now, you live in a police state that rivals that of East Germany."
Can't say I like this ruling.......
Pretty Sad, when the only justices on the CONSERVATIVE side, are Ginsburg, and Souter.
-Eric
This court, along with too many of our otherwise upstanding citizens, will tolerate any police state measure if is invoked in the "War On Drugs."
Yes.
I hate when I agree with Ginsburg
What happens when the dog sniffs out the drugs that is said to be found on our money?Good point. At the very least that gives them "probable cause" for a greater search.
-Eric
Surrounded by a Praetorian Guard of police officers who all treat them so nice, no wonder they allow law enforcement more and more leeway - aren't all cops like the nice, respectful, good men that drive them around from place to place in their SUVs?
It has happened...
Paranoid bump.
The Ruling Class has decided that there's no such thing as 'Unreasonable' search.
No-suspicion searches, even with a dog, are PRECISELY what the 4th amendment was written to prevent.
American liberty has long been very sick, but I was surprised to see yet another near-death-spasm. It's really all over but the outright revocation of the BoR; the confiscation of the guns; the outright suppression of free speech...
Okay, so in this case the dog was used while the defendant was "lawfully seized in a traffic violation." How long before dogs are used at the drunk-driving roadblocks, where everyone is seized with no probable cause? How long until cops have the dogs stroll around shopping center parking lots? Still slip-sliding down that slippery slope...and the defenders of this crap will only scream bloody murder when it's THEY who are inconvenienced.
You are free to submit... Is this what Bush means by ''freedom''?... hardly worth fighting for.
Hmm.
I still get to choose my own job, or no job. That wasn't available in East Germany.
I still get to choose where I live. That wasn't available in East Germany.
My taxes are lower than anywhere in Europe. Ditto East Germany.
I choose my doctor.
I get a few bonus years at the end of my life that people born in other countrie don't get.
I can be part of the government if I want to. Or not.
etc.
Hyperbole suits you and your friends, Laz.
Just you wait. It's not even about the dogs, it's about the probes and sensors just around the corner. Got some outdated prescriptions in the cabinet? Well, we detected it with our InYerFaceTM interior-dwelling drug probe. YOU ****ING DRUG FELON, UP AGAINST THE M*****F*****G WALL, PUNK, BEFORE I HAVE TO SHOO...(BANG)
There goes that Amendment. Strike "unreasonable search" from the record.
I'm glad to see virtually nobody on this thread defending the decision... though I'm sure they'll show up soon enough. :(
Unbelievable. These people are no Conservatives.
The dogs were strolling thru my high school back in the early '80s. Actually had them come thru my Algebra class while we were taking a test and sniff my crotch. After they left, I refused to finish the test, and our teacher agreed.
Well now, if we compare favorably in freedom to Communist East Germany, then I guess there's no need to worry.
/sarcasm
If you're happy and you know it, rattle your chains....
This should be a very long thread, but I fear that it won't.
The debate out in the country is...well its no where to be found.
BigMack
The driver, a lady, got out of the her car. The cop called her and told her to move her car from the loadling zone. Instead of obeying, she just told him that she was doing a quick stop and kept walking toward her intended store. The cop continued chatting with the other fellow like nothing had happened.
If that had been in LA or Miami, the lady might have had her car impounded and arrested. The friendly relationship between cops and citizens is disappearing rapidly in our country.
Yeah. T.J. was prescient, or actually, just observant. Even our beneficant government, whilst once on the side of 'the people', have turned into the oppressors.
Only problem is, there's no New Frontier to go to any more. We're stuck.
Your Papers, please...
Be careful to insure that the officer does not touch your car during the sniff, according to Boston T. Party's "You and the Police."
They've already decided on that (infrared cameras). It's not allowed.
Amazing.
In America, this lady would have had lost some teeth after having been slammed onto the pavement.... if she hadn't been shot or tazered outright.
You must enjoy all the hoops we half to jump thru these days because our Goverment knows what is best for us.
BigMack
There is no way to rule innocent men.
When one need criminals, one simply invents them.
It's called the tyrrany of small laws, and its well along.
A cop can now go into anyone's house and find a reason to arrest them. There are no innocent men anymore.
The sleeping Gulliver is only a string or two from being unable to rise again.
This decision is just wrong. Sad indeed.
Ehhh, probably tomorrow.
Apparently, all they need to do is add some biological sensing unit and it all becomes okay again.
Maybe if they find a way to preserve dogs olfactory nerves in a circuit? Then they can sniff our houses?
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Maybe the SCOTUS needs a refresher on the Fourth Amendment.
"...without fail, they remark "You Americans think you are free. Maybe once you were, but now, you live in a police state that rivals that of East Germany.""
- Not even close. Thoughts and ideas are not illegal here.
Your friend doesn't know what he's talking about.
The only differences between this and an outright search are arbitrary.
Well then, you set me straight with that incredible refutation, now, dinchya?
they have gunpowder sniffing dogs. When they start using those more Freepers will be inconvenienced.
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