Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Small Victory Against the State

The United Socialist Republic of California quite frequently attempts to overreach its bounds.  Many Californians simply roll over and allow this to happen, even encouraging the state’s continued abuse of freedom, so it’s good to see the state slapped back by the Supreme Court.

A passenger as well as a driver has the right to challenge the legality of a police officer’s decision to stop a car, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously today…

The California Supreme Court found that, consitutionally speaking, only the driver had been “seized” by the stop, and that therefore Mr. Brendlin had no basis for challenging the search that turned up the drugs. The State of California made that argument again when the case was heard before the United States Supreme Court on April 23.

But Mr. Brendlin’s lawyer, Elizabeth M. Campbell, argued that when an officer makes a traffic stop, “he seizes not only the driver of the car, but also the car, and every person and every thing in that car.”

The justices agreed. “When police make a traffic stop, a passenger in the car, like the driver, is seized for Fourth Amendment purposes and so may challenge the stop’s constitutionality,” Justice David H. Souter wrote for the high court.

From the New York Times which titled this news story Supreme Court Upholds Rights for Car Passengers

Posted by John Venlet on 06/19 at 04:08 AM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Page 1 of 1 pages