Free Republic

I’ve blogged a few times about the Third Circuit’s litigation in United States v. Katzin, a case on the Fourth Amendment implications of installing a GPS device. Initially, a panel of the court held that installing a GPS device on a car requires a warrant and that the exclusionary rule applied because there was no binding precedent allowing the government to install the device. Next, DOJ moved for en banc rehearing of just the exclusionary rule holding, which the Third Circuit granted. That brings us to the new development: On Wednesday, the en banc Third Circuit ruled that the exclusionary...

The Exclusionary Rule and Security Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that evidence gathered as a result of errors in a police database is admissible in court. Their narrow decision is wrong, and will only ensure that police databases remain error-filled in the future. The specifics of the case are simple. A computer database said there was a felony arrest warrant pending for Bennie Herring when there actually wasn't. When the police came to arrest him, they searched his home and found illegal drugs and a gun. The Supreme Court was asked to rule whether the police had the...

There is a myth about our country circulating mainly in conservative circles that we are a good, solid, can-do type of nation. We see a problem, and by-gum, we fix it. Well, our crime problem has been spiraling out of control for years, and by-gum, we haven’t done a thing to fix it. Judge Cornelius starts his excellent book by citing the terrible crime statistics that show the United States to be the most violent, crime-ridden nation in the world. And we are, so the good Judge says, because American justice is neither swift nor sure. If justice were swift...

... The United States is the only country to take the position that some police misconduct must automatically result in the suppression of physical evidence. The rule applies whether the misconduct is slight or serious, and without regard to the gravity of the crime or the power of the evidence. “Foreign countries have flatly rejected our approach,” said Craig M. Bradley, an expert in comparative criminal law at Indiana University. “In every other country, it’s up to the trial judge to decide whether police misconduct has risen to the level of requiring the exclusion of evidence.” But there are signs...

“Settled law” is a term that liberal jurists reserve mostly for their own use, a seal of finality best left for them to fix on any principle. Ages of precedents are casually disregarded to obtain precedents to their liking, but from that moment on stare decisis is everything, the new doctrine enshrined in law and never again to be doubted. Somehow, though, the doubts keep coming, and most recently centered on the Supreme Court case of Hudson v. Michigan and the settled matter of the exclusionary rule. Acting on a warrant, Detroit police in 1998 arrived at the door of...

A McHenry County judge Friday refused to reverse her earlier ruling that an October 2000 police raid on an adult business owner's office and home was unconstitutional. Judge Sharon Prather rejected claims by McHenry County prosecutors that she could alter her decision so that evidence of suspect child pornography found in the raid could be used in court while other materials seized would be barred. "I don't know in this particular case how you can divide the two," Prather said. In January, the judge ruled that police failed to follow necessary legal proceedings for seizing Constitutionally protected materials during a...