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More Genius Insights from Speaking of Crime

If you're not sold on Speaking of Crime yet, then I don't know what to do with you.  Here is another genius example from the authors: Chapter 3:  "Consensual" Searches It is worth noting that in California (and, not doubt, many other states) it is a crime not to show your driver's license on demand by an officer. Cal. Pen. Vehicle section 12951(b).  As we suggest in the book, officers typically demand to see a driver's license by using the phrase "May I see your license?"  To refuse this ostensible request is a crime.  Yet how are suspects supposed to know that if an officer says "May I look in your trunk," they actually have a constitutional right to refuse?     Is "may" a request or a demand?  Why is it sometimes a request, and other times a demand?  What principled basis is there for the disparate treatment of "may"?continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime & Federalism on August 13, 2008 (boomark / email).