Divided Justices Back Full Arrests on Minor Charges nytimes.com
Hi Poet. Here's today's article from the good gray Times. Personally, I'm sort of surprised that this case got as far as it did and was decided by such a close vote. Police do stuff like this all the time. My mother still tells a story about how, 2 blocks from home, in the 70's, a local cop in my small (30k), quiet, peaceful home town pulled her over and wanted to haul her down to the station because my father hadn't put the new year's sticker on the license plates. In my (very liberal) current home town, with a very progressive local police department, all complaints against police and investigations of alleged officer misconduct are secret (to protect the complainers, allegedly), and there is almost never any disciplinary action taken. This story tugs the heartstrings with the motherhood angle and everything, but it isn't like Giuliani time in New York with Abner Louima or anything.
A mordantly amusing bit from the story:
The case fractured the court's usual alliances, provoking a dissenting opinion by
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who warned that "such unbounded discretion" for
the police "carries with it grave potential for abuse."
Justice O'Connor added that "as the recent debate over racial profiling demonstrates
all too clearly, a relatively minor traffic infraction may serve as an excuse for
stopping and harassing an individual."
But O'Connor's personal efforts on the Bush Legitimization Front will assure that she's replaced by someone more Scalia/'Thomas like, who won't be troubled by "such unbounded discretion". Also sure to have more, er, bounded discretion on Roe V. Wade. Or maybe O'Connor will reconsider her retirement plans, who can say? |
