Posted on 06/27/2014 6:43:51 AM PDT by koanhead
The Roberts Court certainly seems like a conservative juggernaut. And, yes, from campaign finance to race to religion, it has moved the law dramatically to the right. But Wednesday's Supreme Court decision on cell-phone privacy shows that this isn't the entire story. In a number of significant areas of law, a majority of the Roberts Court will line up behind rulings that are not so much conservative as libertarian, often with a surprisingly progressive bent.
That is certainly true of Riley v. California, in which Chief Justice John Roberts, on behalf of his unanimous colleagues, concluded Wednesday that police may generally not search an arrestee's cell phone without due process....
And it's only the latest case in which the court's relatively liberal justices have peeled off one of the court's conservatives--most often Justice Anthony Kennedy, who leans libertarian on many issues, or Justice Antonin Scalia, whose originalism sometimes leads him to expansive readings of the protections provided by the Bill of Rights--to craft a majority in favor of a libertarian-liberal outcome. Consider, for example, Safford v. Redding, a 2009 case in which liberal and libertarian organizations successfully argued that the strip search of a schoolgirl violated the Fourth Amendment. Or United States v. Jones, a 2012 case in which the same coalition persuaded the court that attaching a GPS tracking device to a car to monitor its location violates the Fourth Amendment.
Another case that may end up at the court is ACLU v. Clapper, which challenges the constitutionality of the National Security Agency's collection of Americans' phone records. Libertarians will definitely join liberals to urge the court in fighting this invasion of Americans' privacy....
The alliance of liberal and libertarian advocates will only get stronger in future terms because obviously the justices are listening....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
In particular, conservatives need to loudly get out in front on the Big Brother civil-liberties issues that are coming to the forefront (commendably, some conservatives already are, but the GOP Establishment has been much too tolerant of Big Brother apologists like the odious (and fortunately on his way out) Mike Rogers). As long as civil liberties is seen primarily as a "liberal" issue, conservatives are behind the eight ball.
I wonder why the authors think conservatives would be in favor of police not needing a warrant to search your phone.
There have been several FR threads on the subject, and I don’t think I’ve seen a single post disagreeing with the decision.
Libertarian idiot authors perhaps, trying to draw distinctions that do not exist. Conservatism and libertarianism overlap a good 80-90%.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Who thinks that?
More shallow end analysis of the Supreme Court from the Compost. Doug Kendall and Brannie Gorod are utterly clueless when talking about things “conservative” in terms of jurisprudence, and probably in any other context, as well.
I think it’s simpler than that.
Civil liberties are Good, conservatives are Bad. Therefore conservatives are opposed to civil liberties.
Ya know, if they wanted to know what conservatives believe, they could join FR and post a vanity question. They’d get their ears talked off.
But they’d rather sit up there in the WP offices and attack straw men.
oh Jeeeze.....I'm laughing so hard I'm crying. what vapid POSs those WAPO idjits are
These aren’t WP people - they are members of a libertarian leaning think tank.
Roberts seems to be more interested in “consensus” on the court and unanimous decisions than advancing a conservative ideology. I suppose in some ways that can be good because conservatives have been getting half a loaf in most of these recent decisions, but the flip side is liberals also get half a loaf in the process.
Not less than I think (and some others here). I’ve been railing at the Roberts Court for some time. They are NOT Conservative. Oh they toss us a little bone now and again. But they are the grand architects of an American police state run, and owned, by mega corporations not in any way answerable to the People.
Worst SCOTUS in our history.
OK. My point remains pretty much the same. If you want to know what conservatives believe, why not ask them?
What about any of these issues would a conservative support? All of them are implemented by lefties, so how does it make the left against them?
Spinning
Great point. What conservative thinks a police state is a good thing? None that I know of.
There are some drug warriors here defending tossing a flash bang in a crib.
The current crop of supremes could hardly be less conservative than I think they are.
Straw men are so much fun to knock down, and it enables you think you’re so intelligent.
“Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC) is a think tank, law firm, and action center dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of our Constitution’s text and history.”
They are left wing. It’s no accident that the WP went to them.
Pure BS.
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