VoteKansas.org

Argentina's monetary policy is now subject to the fiscal demands of the government. Citizens can look forward to more inflation.

Mark Steyn on the extreme length of the ObamaCare law.

While his rivals remain consistently defiant, they're doing little to hamper Mitt Romney's momentum ahead of nominating contests on Tuesday.

Bob Greene says politicians have been throwing the virtuous word around like it's an epithet. But voters, especially in a general election, may not be swayed: America is a pretty centrist country

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — As American teenagers go, Sally Kim is pretty typical. She's crazy about singer Bruno Mars and the Plain White T's rock band, spends way too much time on Facebook and can't wait to start college in the fall.

Yet when it comes to that familiar bane ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — As American teenagers go, Sally Kim is pretty typical. She's crazy about singer Bruno Mars and the Plain White T's rock band, spends way too much time on Facebook and can't wait to start college in the fall.

Yet when it comes to that familiar bane ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Riot police used pepper spray in small amounts for crowd control as thousands of rowdy fans swarmed into the streets near the University of Kentucky campus in Lexington, overturning cars and lighting couches ablaze after a victory over cross-state rival Louisville in a Final Four matchup.

...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Riot police used pepper spray in small amounts for crowd control as thousands of rowdy fans swarmed into the streets near the University of Kentucky campus in Lexington, overturning cars and lighting couches ablaze after a victory over cross-state rival Louisville in a Final Four matchup.

...

Yes, his son's life was eventful—the subject of films and TV series—but look at what the first Tudor, Henry VII, managed to do. Martin Rubin reviews "Winter King."

NYTimes Editorial: The Roberts Court Defines Itself:

For anyone who still thought legal conservatives are dedicated to judicial restraint, the oral arguments before the Supreme Court on the health care case should put that idea to rest. There has been no court less restrained in signaling its willingness to replace law made by Congress with law made by justices.

CNN's Kate Bolduan looks at what the Supreme Court will now do with the health care reform law.

NYTimes.com: 538: Supreme Court May Be Most Conservative in Modern History by Nate Silver

If President Obama’s health care bill is stricken by the Supreme Court, liberals will take it as evidence of judicial overreach, or at least that the court has shifted far to the right. One statistical method for analyzing the Supreme Court, in fact, already finds that the current court is the most conservative since at least the 1930s.

...

As you can see from the chart, Mr. Martin and Mr. Quinn rate the current court (based on data up through late 2010) as the most conservative in their database based on the positioning of the median justice, the previous high having come in the early 1950s. Although Justice Kennedy is not extraordinarily conservative relative to all other justices who have served on the court, he is very conservative by the standards of the median justice, who has typically been more of a true moderate.

Statistics to measure justice? Why not. Nothing else works to measure.

Officers alleged to have entered the wrong unit during execution of a search warrant then detaining the occupants for three hours stated a § 1983 claim that overcame qualified immunity. Gomez v. Feissner, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 6450 (3d Cir. March 30, 2012) (unpublished):

The Gomezes also claim that Feissner and Zola violated their right to be free from unreasonable seizure by detaining them for three hours during the search of their home. A "seizure" occurs when a government officer, "by means of physical force or show of authority ... restrains the liberty of a citizen." Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19 n.16 (1968). Under clearly established Supreme Court precedent, it is reasonable for officers to seize the occupants of a home while conducting a constitutionally valid search thereof. Michigan v. Summers, 452 U.S. 692, 705 (1981). But this is true only for the duration of the search. When the search if completed, the authority expires. Id. Moreover, under Garrison, it is clearly established that once officers know or should know that they are without authority to continue a seizure, they must end it.

The Gomezes allege that Feissner should have known after fifteen minutes that he had no authority to search their home. It is undisputed that for three hours beyond this point, the Gomezes were involuntarily detained by either Feissner or officers under his command. These allegations suffice to make out a violation of the Gomezes' clearly established right to be free from unreasonable seizure, and Feissner accordingly does not have qualified immunity from this claim.

Note: This case states the obvious. What is galling about it is the defendant police officer arguing with a straight face that he, first, could not only enter the wrong apartment when he was on notice by unit numbers and multiple doorways and satellite dishes, but, second, he could then detain the occupants of the place wrongly searched for three hours for no apparent reason. They should settle and move on, if their position in this case hasn't thoroughly added insult to injury and made trial inevitable. This is the double edged sword of qualified immunity: When the defense loses on qualified immunity, you're only arguing about the damages. This is sufficiently flagrant that punitives should result.

Officers working patrol in a housing project smelled marijuana. They followed the smell and found it coming from an apartment. They knocked on the door and the smell was far stronger. The defendant answering the door admitted to smoking marijuana. There was exigency for an entry to seize the marijuana because they couldn’t practically leave and get a warrant without the marijuana being destroyed. United States v. McMillion, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 6434 (3d Cir. March 30, 2012) (unpublished):

Here, the exigency of the circumstances provided the officers with an objectively reasonable belief that a warrantless entry was justified. The officers followed the odor of marijuana to Washington's apartment, knocked on the door and, when Washington opened the door, the odor was even stronger. It was thus reasonable for the officers to suspect that there was ongoing drug activity, and, particularly in light of McMillion's admission to smoking marijuana, it was also reasonable for the officers to conclude that contraband was being destroyed and would continue to be destroyed or removed if they did not act immediately.

Police received a 911 call of shots fired from an alleged AK47 inside a house, and the SWAT team even came. Just before entry, they saw a light go on, and they entered. This was with exigent circumstances there might be a shooting victim inside. Once officers were inside, the court finds defendant consented to a full search of the premises. State v. Johnson, 2012 Ohio 1344, 2012 Ohio App. LEXIS 1170 (8th Dist. March 29, 2012).*

Defendant was approached by an officer at a rest stop because he noticed her taillights flash, suggesting she needed help. He found her OVI. He did not suspect any criminal activity, and there was no apparent need for a community caretaking encounter, so the motion to suppress should have been granted. State v. Clapper, 2012 Ohio 1382, 2012 Ohio App. LEXIS 1189 (9th Dist. March 30, 2012).

Defendant stopped for a lane change violation was in a rented car purportedly rented to his girlfriend, but he didn’t know her last name. That was reasonable suspicion to detain longer. State v. Delossantos, 2012 Ohio 1383, 2012 Ohio App. LEXIS 1192 (9th Dist. March 30, 2012).*

The “consent” search here was not true consent, and the finding of defendant’s money for seizure was a product of that invalid consent. There were no intervening circumstances sufficient to purge the taint. “The Court also finds the constitutional violations that preceded Moser's consent were purposeful and flagrant.” United States v. $28,000.00 in United States Currency, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 44113 (S.D. Cal. March 29, 2012).*

Officers at the house end of the driveway were in the curtilage when they made their “plain view” of an HCL generator. The government’s alternative argument of knock-and-talk with a PO and LEO led to a “protective sweep,” but the government cannot prove that there was any articulable basis for believing there was somebody armed there. Finally, the court concludes that the PO had reasonable suspicion that defendant was involved in a methamphetamine operation, and that justified entry onto the property. United States v. Wyatt, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42725 (W.D. Ky. March 28, 2012).*

Defendant’s guilty plea even waived ineffective assistance claims. [That violates the Sixth Amendment; how obtuse. How can defense counsel agree to a plea agreement that waives IAC? In any rational court, counsel can’t because of a conflict on the potential Sixth Amendment claim.] Wiand v. United States, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43793 (N.D. Tex. January 17, 2012).*

Use the comments of this post during this month if you have things you would like to bring to people’s attention and are not sure where else to post them. I’ll make a new Bulletin Board each month for free posting.

Have at it, communicate and keep up the good fight!

Cheers,

-WalterJ

NYTimes: Police Are Using Phone Tracking as a Routine Tool by Eric Licthblau:

Law enforcement tracking of cellphones, once the province mainly of federal agents, has grown into a powerful and widely used surveillance tool for local police officials as well, with hundreds of departments, large and small, often using it aggressively with little or no court oversight, new documents show.

The practice has become big business for cellphone companies, too, with a handful of carriers marketing a catalog of “surveillance fees” to police departments to determine a suspect’s location, trace phone calls and texts or provide other services. Some departments log dozens of traces a month for both emergencies and routine investigations.

Huffington Post: Illinois State Police Drug Dog Unit Analysis Shows Error Rate Between 28 and 74 Percent:

In the course of reporting on the traffic stop of Terrance Huff, HuffPost was able to obtain the reports of an Illinois State Police K-9 unit over an 11-month period in 2007 and 2008. An analysis of those reports shows that only 25.7 percent of the drug dog "alerts" resulted in police finding a measurable quantity of illicit drugs. Just 13 percent resulted in the recovery of more than 10 grams of marijuana, generally considered an amount for personal use, and 10.4 percent turned up enough drugs to charge the motorists or their passengers with at least one felony.

In all, the police dog conducted 252 "sniffs" over the 11-month period, resulting in 136 alerts. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a drug dog's alert is enough to establish probable cause for a warrantless search of a vehicle. Of the 136 alerts, 35 turned up a large enough quantity of drugs to merit an arrest, and 63 turned up what the police officer refers to as "shake," or "residue." The officer didn't send any of those cases to a lab, so it's difficult to know if what the officer found was actually drug residue or, as appears to have been the case in the search of Terrance Huff, likely something else. In 38 cases, or 27.9 percent of the times a dog alert gave cause for a more thorough search, the officer recorded finding no drugs at all. Still, in most of these cases, the officer still notes in the report that the driver or passengers looked to be under the influence of drugs or, somewhat improbably, admitted to him that they were regular drug users. Obviously, there's no way to verify those claims.

Rep. Bobby Rush's hoodie on the House floor sure got attention.