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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsShocking SCOTUS decision: police may use evidence seized in ILLEGAL stops.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/us/supreme-court-says-police-may-use-evidence-found-after-illegal-stops.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-newsWASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that evidence found by police officers after illegal stops may be used in court if the officers conducted their searches after learning that the defendants had outstanding arrest warrants.
Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority in the 5-to-3 decision, said such searches do not violate the Fourth Amendment when the warrant is valid and unconnected to the conduct that prompted the stop.
Justice Thomass opinion drew a fiery dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said that it is no secret that people of color are disproportionate victims of this type of scrutiny.
This case tells everyone, white and black, guilty and innocent, that an officer can verify your legal status at any time, she wrote. It says that your body is subject to invasion while courts excuse the violation of your rights. It implies that you are not a citizen of a democracy but the subject of a carceral state, just waiting to be cataloged.
SNIP
Justin Driver, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said Justice Sotomayors dissent was remarkable. It was, he said, the strongest indication we have yet that the Black Lives Matter movement has made a difference at the Supreme Court at least with one justice.
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Shocking SCOTUS decision: police may use evidence seized in ILLEGAL stops. (Original Post)
pnwmom
Jun 2016
OP
NYC Liberal
(20,136 posts)1. Sotomayor's dissent is amazing and worth reading
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/06/20/sonia_sotomayor_dissent_in_utah_v_strieff_takes_on_police_misconduct.html
It is no secret that people of color are disproportionate victims of this type of scrutiny, Sotomayor continues, citing Michelle Alexanders The New Jim Crow and Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me:
Finally, Sotomayor builds to her jaw-dropping peroration:
This Court has given officers an array of instruments to probe and examine you. When we condone officers use of these devices without adequate cause, we give them reason to target pedestrians in an arbitrary manner. We also risk treating members of our communities as second-class citizens. Although many Americans have been stopped for speeding or jaywalking, few may realize how degrading a stop can be when the officer is looking for more.
The indignity of the stop is not limited to an officer telling you that you look like a criminal. If the officer thinks you might be dangerous, he may then frisk you for weapons. This involves more than just a pat down. As onlookers pass by, the officer may feel with sensitive fingers every portion of [your] body. A thorough search [may] be made of [your] arms and armpits, waistline and back, the groin and area about the testicles, and entire surface of the legs down to the feet.
The officers control over you does not end with the stop. If the officer chooses, he may handcuff you and take you to jail for doing nothing more than speeding, jaywalking, or driving [your] pickup truck . . . with [your] 3-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter . . . without [your] seatbelt fastened. At the jail, he can fingerprint you, swab DNA from the inside of your mouth, and force you to shower with a delousing agent while you lift [your] tongue, hold out [your] arms, turn around, and lift [your] genitals. Even if you are innocent, you will now join the 65 million Americans with an arrest record and experience the civil death of discrimination by employers, landlords, and whoever else conducts a background check. And, of course, if you fail to pay bail or appear for court, a judge will issue a warrant to render you arrestable on sight in the future.
The indignity of the stop is not limited to an officer telling you that you look like a criminal. If the officer thinks you might be dangerous, he may then frisk you for weapons. This involves more than just a pat down. As onlookers pass by, the officer may feel with sensitive fingers every portion of [your] body. A thorough search [may] be made of [your] arms and armpits, waistline and back, the groin and area about the testicles, and entire surface of the legs down to the feet.
The officers control over you does not end with the stop. If the officer chooses, he may handcuff you and take you to jail for doing nothing more than speeding, jaywalking, or driving [your] pickup truck . . . with [your] 3-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter . . . without [your] seatbelt fastened. At the jail, he can fingerprint you, swab DNA from the inside of your mouth, and force you to shower with a delousing agent while you lift [your] tongue, hold out [your] arms, turn around, and lift [your] genitals. Even if you are innocent, you will now join the 65 million Americans with an arrest record and experience the civil death of discrimination by employers, landlords, and whoever else conducts a background check. And, of course, if you fail to pay bail or appear for court, a judge will issue a warrant to render you arrestable on sight in the future.
It is no secret that people of color are disproportionate victims of this type of scrutiny, Sotomayor continues, citing Michelle Alexanders The New Jim Crow and Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me:
For generations, black and brown parents have given their children the talk instructing them never to run down the street; always keep your hands where they can be seen; do not even think of talking back to a strangerall out of fear of how an officer with a gun will react to them.
Finally, Sotomayor builds to her jaw-dropping peroration:
By legitimizing the conduct that produces this double consciousness, this case tells everyone, white and black, guilty and innocent, that an officer can verify your legal status at any time. It says that your body is subject to invasion while courts excuse the violation of your rights. It implies that you are not a citizen of a democracy but the subject of a carceral state, just waiting to be cataloged. We must not pretend that the countless people who are routinely targeted by police are isolated. They are the canaries in the coal mine whose deaths, civil and literal, warn us that no one can breathe in this atmosphere. They are the ones who recognize that unlawful police stops corrode all our civil liberties and threaten all our lives. Until their voices matter too, our justice system will continue to be anything but.
pnwmom
(108,977 posts)2. Thank you!
Fresh_Start
(11,330 posts)3. presumably there will be a lot more illegal stops
in order to create the opportunity to get illegal evidence.
horrible decision