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SCOTUS expands police power in traffic stops

By ambimb

If you haven’t heard, the Supreme Court of the U.S. seems to have purchased a one-way ticket to the land of Government Can Do No Wrong in their criminal law and procedure rulings of late. Two weeks ago, in Herring (PDF), the Court gutted the exclusionary rule, basically holding that evidence obtained by police actions that violate the Constitution should be admitted so long as the police acted “in good faith.” The opinion purported to be more narrow, but as Talkleft pointed out, it’s guaranteed to generate a “but the officer honestly believed he was acting legally!” response to every motion to suppress. Even conservative Instapundit thinks it was a very bad decision. As he notes, we all have to live by the rule that ignorance of the law is no excuse…...continue to full post

Full post as published by Public Defender Stuff on January 28, 2009 (boomark / email).