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'd say a fair rate would be $15 for every two minutes!
Well I'm glad you are a happy little drone. Ask your hardworking doctor friends how they like HMOs. Moreover, ask them what HMO policy and various laws require them to report. Confidentiality? Ha! Big Brother knows all about your health.
Would you send your kids to risk their lives for a state that loves to spy on you and stands ready to take everything you ever earned? I will not. And I will not keep my earnings inside these borders. We have a shadow of freedom. It is not worth stubbing my toe, much less risking my life over.
..expect to see dogs used at sobriety check points. Better do a roach check of your ash trays and seats..and don't forget all those seeds and stems rolling around the carpet..oh ya..and that crack pipe you thought was so well hidden??...
Exactly the attitude that encourages the Police State. I'm fighting. You're whining.
Remember algebra? If a=b=c then a=c. If your hypo is based on the decision, and the decision is based on the case, than your hypo is based on the case. I see logic isn't your strong suit.
That's not algebra, and "based on" is not the same as "=". Logic is definitely not your strong suit.
But in Kyllo, the police were simply reading photons that were available in public, and the court ruled that they had violated the 4th. So there has to be more to the case than that.
They are still working on that one!
Put down the bong and go get something to eat.
You take a common, but not very useful view of the Police State: As long as they are violating the rights of (pick as many as you want): homosexuals, pot smokers, people with other skin colors, people richer than me, people poorer than me, people who live in the city/country/suburubs (i.e. where I don't), you are just fine with the Police State.
The fact is, all it takes is a small - say $200 - bribe to a confidential informant, and it's YOUR door they are breaking down. You WANT to live in a country that does that over something as innocuous as what that person chooses to put in their own body?
When the Army runs short of recruits because enough people figure out we live in an unfree nation, THEN someone might listen.
What a banal and childish "me, me, me" attitude.
If you would read my comments on the thread, I conceded that random dog searches are another step toward the left. But:
1) A US Citizen can be more free than any other person on the planet.
2) Only those US Citizens that exercise their freedoms actually have them.
Just sitting around and bitching about it ain't a free person make.
If you can manage the attention span required, read Natan Sharansky's "Fear no evil" and you may learn that freedom cannot be taken away from a person that does not voluntarily relinquish it through apathy (and whining).
2) Only those US Citizens that exercise their freedoms actually have them
You waaaay overrate the U.S. on freedom. We are an also-ran in economic freedom, privacy, and taxation. You are complacent.
And another thing...have you ever said that to your own children and grandchildren?
I've heard that pathetic attitude elsewhere, and something always occurs to me:
I'm young, and yes, I am dealt the nation you and your generation is leaving behind.
Reminds me of a litterbug that throws their garbage out on someone else's property and moves on.
Thanks for the present. This generation will have to overcome your mess as well as the problems of our time.
Then tell me why you don't live there.
Most of Eastern Europe has low taxes and relatively small government. No matter what the law says, they sure don't have the resources to implement a police state. Singapore has a very open economic and social environment, and, except for cars, low taxes. Those are the places I have direct experience with. I own a house and some additional land in an Eastern European country, and may relocate there if my business uses engineering talent from that country. I alsready have dual citizenship. There are many places in the former Soviet empire that take freedom very seriously because everyone there remembers when they did not have it.
Governments are a market in freedom. Those that don't deliver deserve to lose their most productive people. The U.S. will be like Argentina in 20 years - an unimportant place filled with prideful chauvanists who cannot see how far behind they have fallen.
This is not carved in stone and the opposite is probably true - the enforcement of drugs laws probably does more harm to this country than it helps. he forfeiture side of drug enforcement is important. It enables LE agencies to acquire new and often expensive tools to fight the drug war
In other words, it enables LE to buy more toys so they can pretend that they're Rambo.
I don't know about NJ, I've never practiced law in the Garden State. But I can tell you, as a prosecutor, if someone brought me one seed, and the guy had bought the car used in the last twelve months, I wouldn't waste the tax payer's money because there's no way Blue State, that you are going to convince twelve people that the individual "knowingly" possessed, unless the cop also can testify the perp reeked of MJ smoke etc.
As a side note, if you buy a used car, many police stations will run their drug dog through it as a courtesy.
Very few times do the readers here see the term standards in the same post as your screen name.
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