Legal Commentary

Justice Department Guidelines Cut Back on Miranda Rights For Terror Suspects:

By Paul Cassell

The Justice Department has just announced new guidelines, apparently expanding the ?public safety? exception to Miranda to allow extended questioning of terror suspects.  The WSJ has the story here. Such extended questioning will require approval of Justice Department lawyers.

How does Eric Holder reconcile these new guidelines with the position that he supported in Dickerson in 2000 (that the Miranda warnings were constitutionally required)?  Bill Otis has an interesting analysis of the contradiction here.

Previous VC posts on the subject of Miranda and public safety can be found here. Questioning terror suspects seems to me to be  the classic example of the need for a public safety exemption.  It does seem desirable to have Congress add its backing to the exemption by passing a statute confirming its agreement with the Justice Department guidelines.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on March 24, 2011 (boomark / email).