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U.S. Constitution
See other U.S. Constitution Articles

Title: Supreme Court Rules Cops Can Break the Law to Enforce the Law
Source: Activist Post
URL Source: http://www.activistpost.com/2016/06 ... he-law-to-enforce-the-law.html
Published: Jun 20, 2016
Author: Matt Agorist
Post Date: 2016-06-20 21:03:50 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 2425
Comments: 14

cops-can-break-the-law-to-enforce-the-law

By Matt Agorist

In another devastating blow to the 4th Amendment, on Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that evidence of an alleged crime can be used against a defendant even if police did something inappropriate or even illegal to obtain it.

In a split 5-3 decision, the justices voted to reinstate the drug-related convictions of Joseph Edward Strieff. In the case of Strieff, he was illegally detained during a “concededly unconstitutional detention,” which eventually led to the discovery of drugs inside his vehicle.

In Strieff’s case, a trial court judge later found that the officer did not have enough evidence to initially stop and question him. But the judge ruled that Strieff’s subsequent arrest on an outstanding traffic warrant justified the search — implying that the use of criminal behavior to catch criminal behavior is just.

The Utah Court of Appeals agreed with the trial court that the drug evidence was admissible at trial, but, in a moment of logic, the Utah Supreme Court last year reversed that decision.

The Utah Supreme Court noted in its January 2015 decision that the case presented “a gap of substantial significance” in terms of prior rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court on Fourth Amendment issues, and that other courts that have addressed the issue have come to “substantially different conclusions” regarding search and seizure law.

The Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule allows criminal defendants to suppress “fruit of the poisonous tree” — that is, evidence obtained as a result of a search or seizure that violates the Fourth Amendment. The reason this rule exists is due to the obvious conflict of interests in cops breaking the law to enforce the law.

However, thanks to Monday’s ruling by the Supreme Court, that is exactly what will happen now. Police have essentially been given a free pass to violate the rights of individuals — just so long as they find evidence of a ‘crime.’

On Monday, the logic applied by the Utah Supreme Court in 2015, was thrown to the wayside in a handout to the police state.

Given the reality of the militarized police state rising up from the horrors of the war on drugs, the fact that cops can now legally act illegally to bust people for possessing arbitrary substances is chilling.

As if breaking the law wasn’t enough, prior to this ruling, police were no longer required to even give the appearance of an understanding of the laws they’re tasked with enforcing, thanks to a recent court decision surpassing even the veritable green light previously granted in Heien v. North Carolina.

In the Heien case, the Supreme Court ruled a “police officer’s reasonable mistake of law gives rise to reasonable suspicion that justifies a traffic stop under the Fourth Amendment.” A motorist’s broken tail light caused an officer to make a traffic stop — during which evidence of a separate violation of the law was discovered in the vehicle.

But in North Carolina, a broken tail light wasn’t illegal, thus not sufficient cause to justify the stop — nor the arrests stemming from it, lawyers argued, because that would be a violation of unreasonable searches and seizures.

However, the Supreme Court ruled the officer’s ignorance of the law essentially didn’t matter — effectively allowing police around the country the ability to make stops if they ‘reasonably’ believe the cause for the stop is legal. Plainly, police can stop and search you despite ignorance of the law.

Now, in U.S. v Shelton Barnes et al. — a case that seemed to slip by largely unnoticed — even that flimsy justification has been deemed too constricting of police power, and police ignorance can actually be used against you in a trial.

On Monday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in dissent that the decision in Utah vs. Edward Joseph Strieff, is a blow to constitutional rights.

“The court today holds that the discovery of a warrant for an unpaid parking ticket will forgive a police officer’s violation of your Fourth Amendment rights,” Sotomayor wrote.

Sotomayor’s dissent was joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Elena Kagan.

Now, police need not understand the law, or even abide by the law — to enforce the law. In what world is this considered acceptable?

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#1. To: Deckard (#0)

In another devastating blow to the 4th Amendment, on Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that evidence of an alleged crime can be used against a defendant even if police did something inappropriate or even illegal to obtain it.

This misstates the case. It is not about doing something illegal or inappropriate to obtain the evidence, but doing something which was not flagrant police misconduct, not with the purpose of obtaining the evidence ultimately obtained, but resulting in obtaining said evidence. The perp was arrested pursuant to an outstanding warrant and found in possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/14-1373_83i7.pdf

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Syllabus

UTAH v. STRIEFF

CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF UTAH

No. 14–1373. Argued February 22, 2016—Decided June 20, 2016

Narcotics detective Douglas Fackrell conducted surveillance on a South Salt Lake City residence based on an anonymous tip about drug ac­tivity. The number of people he observed making brief visits to the house over the course of a week made him suspicious that the occu­pants were dealing drugs. After observing respondent Edward Strieff leave the residence, Officer Fackrell detained Strieff at a nearby parking lot, identifying himself and asking Strieff what he was doing at the house. He then requested Strieff’s identification and relayed the information to a police dispatcher, who informed him that Strieff had an outstanding arrest warrant for a traffic violation. Officer Fackrell arrested Strieff, searched him, and found methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. Strieff moved to suppress the evidence, ar­guing that it was derived from an unlawful investigatory stop. The trial court denied the motion, and the Utah Court of Appeals af­firmed. The Utah Supreme Court reversed, however, and ordered the evidence suppressed.

Held: The evidence Officer Fackrell seized incident to Strieff’s arrest is admissible based on an application of the attenuation factors from Brown v. Illinois, 422 U. S. 590. In this case, there was no flagrant police misconduct. Therefore, Officer Fackrell’s discovery of a valid, pre-existing, and untainted arrest warrant attenuated the connection between the unconstitutional investigatory stop and the evidenceseized incident to a lawful arrest. Pp. 4–10.

(a) As the primary judicial remedy for deterring Fourth Amendment violations, the exclusionary rule encompasses both the “primary evidence obtained as a direct result of an illegal search or seizure”and, relevant here, “evidence later discovered and found to be derivative of an illegality.” Segura v. United States, 468 U. S. 796, 804. But to ensure that those deterrence benefits are not outweighed by the rule’s substantial social costs, there are several exceptions to the rule. One exception is the attenuation doctrine, which provides for admissibility when the connection between unconstitutional police conduct and the evidence is sufficiently remote or has been interrupted by some intervening circumstance. See Hudson v. Michigan, 547 U. S. 586, 593. Pp. 4–5.

(b) As a threshold matter, the attenuation doctrine is not limited to the defendant’s independent acts. The doctrine therefore applies here, where the intervening circumstance is the discovery of a valid, pre-existing, and untainted arrest warrant. Assuming, without deciding, that Officer Fackrell lacked reasonable suspicion to stop Strieff initially, the discovery of that arrest warrant attenuated theconnection between the unlawful stop and the evidence seized from Strieff incident to his arrest. Pp. 5–10.

(1) Three factors articulated in Brown v. Illinois, 422 U. S. 590, lead to this conclusion. The first, “temporal proximity” between the initially unlawful stop and the search, id., at 603, favors suppressing the evidence. Officer Fackrell discovered drug contraband on Strieff only minutes after the illegal stop. In contrast, the second factor, “the presence of intervening circumstances, id., at 603–604, strongly favors the State. The existence of a valid warrant, predating the investigation and entirely unconnected with the stop, favors finding sufficient attenuation between the unlawful conduct and the discovery of evidence. That warrant authorized Officer Fackrell to arrest Strieff, and once the arrest was authorized, his search of Strieff incident to that arrest was undisputedly lawful. The third factor, “the purpose and flagrancy of the official misconduct,” id., at 604, also strongly favors the State. Officer Fackrell was at most negligent, but his errors in judgment hardly rise to a purposeful or flagrant violation of Strieff’s Fourth Amendment rights. After the unlawful stop, his conduct was lawful, and there is no indication that the stop was part of any systemic or recurrent police misconduct. Pp. 6–9.

(2) Strieff’s counterarguments are unpersuasive. First, neither Officer Fackrell’s purpose nor the flagrancy of the violation rises to a level of misconduct warranting suppression. Officer Fackrell’s purpose was not to conduct a suspicionless fishing expedition but was to gather information about activity inside a house whose occupants were legitimately suspected of dealing drugs. Strieff conflates the standard for an illegal stop with the standard for flagrancy, which requires more than the mere absence of proper cause. Second, it is unlikely that the prevalence of outstanding warrants will lead to dragnet searches by police. Such misconduct would expose police to civil liability and, in any event, is already accounted for by Brown’s “purpose and flagrancy” factor. Pp. 9–10.

2015 UT 2, 357 P. 3d 532, reversed.

THOMAS, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and KENNEDY, BREYER, and ALITO, JJ., joined. SOTOMAYOR, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which GINSBURG, J., joined as to Parts I, II, and III. KAGAN, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which GINSBURG, J., joined.

nolu chan  posted on  2016-06-20   22:52:15 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: nolu chan (#1)

I agree with Sotomayor's dissent.

Given the hard-mindedness of Republicans on all matters, and given their refusal to follow Trump, it looks as though we're going to have a half- century or more of Democrat rule and Democrat control of the Court.

So, while your opinion of this holds for the instant, it will no longer be the case two years hence. By then, there will be a Democrat majority Supreme Court that will cut away all of this rather aggressively pro-police law.

You will do well to start to reposition your mind on such subjects, because if you don't, you will find yourself constantly at odds with the Supreme Court jurisprudence that will be the law for most, if not all, of the remainder of your life.

Vicomte13  posted on  2016-06-21   8:38:45 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: Vicomte13 (#2)

Actually, my opinion of the Opinion of the Court was not stated. I opined that Matt Agorist misstated the case.

Agorist claimed, "The Supreme Court ruled that evidence of an alleged crime can be used against a defendant even if police did something inappropriate or even illegal to obtain it."

The Court stated,

That warrant authorized Officer Fackrell to arrest Strieff, and once the arrest was authorized, his search of Strieff incident to that arrest was undisputedly lawful. The third factor, “the purpose and flagrancy of the official misconduct,” id., at 604, also strongly favors the State. Officer Fackrell was at most negligent, but his errors in judgment hardly rise to a purposeful or flagrant violation of Strieff’s Fourth Amendment rights.

SCOTUS found that the arrest was incident to an outstanding arrest warrant.

One may disagree with what SCOTUS found, but they did not find what Agorist claimed they did.

nolu chan  posted on  2016-06-21   17:18:41 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


Replies to Comment # 3.

#4. To: nolu chan (#3)

Fair enough. It will go better for you in your life if you come to Sotomayor's position, because that is where the current will flow.

Vicomte13  posted on  2016-06-21 17:57:25 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


End Trace Mode for Comment # 3.

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