Court Allows Arrests of All in Drug Stops

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court made it easier Monday for police to arrest all occupants of a car when hidden drugs are found during a traffic stop.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, writing for the unanimous court, said that in a small space like a car, "it was reasonable for the officer to infer a common enterprise" among a driver and passengers during a 1999 stop in Maryland.

Rehnquist said police had probable cause to suspect that passenger Joseph Jermaine Pringle knew that there was $763 in the glove compartment and five baggies of cocaine in an armrest in the backseat.

An appeals court had thrown out Pringle's drug conviction and 10-year prison sentence on grounds that his arrest violated the Constitution's Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches or seizures.

The Supreme Court reversed the decision.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-scotus-traffic-stops,0,7929234.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[candy331]

1. God, this is a scary time in America

What is the next step to the end of freedom in this country. Never accept a ride with a neighbor, friend, etc, only ride in your own personal vehicle or you could wind up in jail.

[monobrau]

3. Sharing rides = communism

Don't you know that good americans should always ride alone in an automobile that accomodates at least 4 passengers? These "ride sharers" hate america.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. Whoa, dude

With one breath
With one flow
You will know
Synchronicity...

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. Collective Guilt = COMMUNISM

This is not America. The country I live in is more America than America nowadays. Come here and be free.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Very scary indeed.

Bad enough when busted for a carload of potheads sharing a fattie, but I remember one time years ago when a guy I knew lost his license and had to pick up a bunch of stuff for his business.

"OK, I'll drive the truck upstate."

Didn't know he had over an ounce of coke on him for the trip.

We did get stopped in a little college town in upstate New York for no good reason, and no tickets or problems, but I still shiver at what could have happened if the cop looked any closer than he did.

[eyesroll]

2. So if a drug dealer gives his grandmother a ride to the doctor's office,

Grandma can be convicted?

OK, show of hands...who here is sure they have never ridden in a car with drugs hidden in an armrest or glove compartment? Anyone? I guess we're all guilty....

[SlavesandBulldozers]

6. reminds me of Bulls on Parade by RATM

Weapons not food not homes not shoes.
Not needs
Just feed the war cannibal animal.
I walk the corner to the rubble
It used to be a library.
Line up to the mind cemetary.

What we don't know keeps the contracts alive and moving.
THey don't have to burn the books they just remove them.
While arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells.

____

It seems as though our Administration has become, as I believe Kerry said, "intoxicated with power." The same holds true with this Supreme Court ruling, the SUpreme court is essentially saying "we are subjecting our citizens to the whim of the police state." How many times have you seen police driving on the streets under the influence of power?

[shanti]

22. plenty of times

and i also know of cops who drink and drive - blatantly - with a bottle of wine between the front seats - and are given a pass when they are stopped.

disgusting isn't even the word for it.

[TacticalPeek]

8. "in a small space"

How small? Would a stretch limo change the court's calc? Or a bus? Is everybody on the bus or everybody off?

And so what if the passenger knew there was dough in the glove compartment and dope in the backseat armrest? Knowledge is not possession, and IIRC, US law does not obligate anyone to report a crime.

For a 'conservative' court, they sure are making it up as they go.

:shrug:

[Fovea]

13. US law does not obligate anyone to report a crime.

Unless you are a health care provider who sees evidence of abuse.

[shanti]

23. mandated reporter

that is what they are called.

[Syrinx]

16. I get the feeling...

That a stretch limo would change this court's calculation, but that a bus would not.

[Heddi]

9. This is..well, how do I say it...

pure Bullshit!

Let's say someone gives me a ride to school---how am *I* supposed to know if they've got pot, guns, a body, etc, in the trunk of the car? Why am I responsible for what they have in their car?

Alternately, if I'm carrying a $20 bag in my pocket, and am giving a ride to someone, why is it THEIR business what I've got with me? Or what if they have a $20 bag on them?

Are we supposed to frisk all of our friends, all the time, search their cars and their homes to ensure that THEY aren't going to be the reason that WE are arrested?

This is plainly retarded.

[benfranklin1776]

14. It is indeed. A steaming pile of it.

Within which you will find the hollowed out carcass of the fourth amendment which has been one of the most prominent casualties of the "war on drugs." The fourth amendment by its plain text and former interpretation has always been regarded as requiring individualized and particularized probable cause of an individual's involvement in criminal activity to justify that individual's seizure. This ruling now discards that and opts for a locality test. If you are unknowingly in the same confined space as someone
who is carrying drugs (or some other illegal item) well too bad for you, you are guilty "by proximity." Civilized law protective of human rights rejects emphatically such guilt by association. Repressive law embraces it as an effective tool of increasing state authority. As other posters have rightfully noted this guilt by association is the hallmark of the legal systems of Communist and fascist regimes throughout history.

Mr. Rehnquist would obviously like a society in which people are so frightened of transgressing some hitherto unknown law or being prosecuted for the actions of their friends or associates that it chills people into inaction and witdrawal from social contact and association, lest the agents of the state come knocking. This is yet another reason why the 2004 elections are so important since he is hgoing to retire and there will be a golden opportunity to replace him.

[shanti]

24. more property to confiscate, eh?

this just crossed my mind.

[Melsky]

10. so disturbing!

Before you get in anyone's car, make sure to search the vehicle for contraband of any sort. If your friends are innocent, they will not object.

/sarcasm

[TacticalPeek]

12. Really. Better get a new briefcase for Christmas,

to carry all the waivers, loyalty oaths, etc., that the court has now obligated us to maintain, in place of a presumption of innocence.

:mad:

[Heddi]

19. Exactly...

If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about :eyes:

I seriously see the next step in this is that if you're at someone's HOUSE and there is a raid, even if you are a visitor, and there are illegal things in the house, you, the visitor, will be seen as JUST AS GUILTY as the home-owner.

They are making sure we're a society of people who are afraid of everyone else around us. They're making us a society of fear, and doing it pretty well...

Spy on your friends! Turn them in if you think they're terrorists! Cable-Installers! Surreptitiously snoop in the home of new cable subscribers to see if THEY own any literature, or subscribe to any beliefs that are against the American Way!

Citizens! Your friends aren't REALLY your friends unless they allow full cavity searches before going out to lunch! They may be carrying evil Mary-Wanna, or Crack Cocaine! Or the Communist Manifesto! Don't let their bad behaviour rub off on you! Look at what the Athiests have done to our country!

Remember: Good Citizens allow strip-searching of one another upon demand! If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.

Guilt by Close Proximity! Always be aware of who YOU'RE standing next to! they could be your one-way ride to school, or your one-way ride to JAIL!!!

--

Seriously---What about busses? Passenger Vans? What about mom's that play taxi driver to their child and 5 of their friends---is SHE responsible should Mr. 16 year old be caught with a resin-filled hash pipe? Should the children be responsible if MOM is caught with a resin-filled hashpipe?

This is getting ridiculous. This is not the country I once lived in.

Guilty until presumed Innocent. Unless, of course, you're friends with 'evil dooers"

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. The Scalia court has been moving in this direction for some time.

It was already ok for police to search everyone in the car. It was just a small inference away for them to arrest everyone as well. Does this destroy someone's civil rights as an individual? Of course it does. But, it's not going to change until our Supreme Court gets more moderates and liberals on the court.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. OK, flame me, but ...

I can see the sense in this.

This is in the case when quantity implies dealing, and riding in a car, when it's likely dealing will take place, implies a reasonable suspicion that you're involved.

This is about arrest, not conviction. They don't have to prove it beyong reasonable doubt.

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. It's police "discretion" that makes this law appalling.

If it were applied evenly to all races, as in say: stopping as many cars on college campuses as they do in black districts, then, I suspect you'll begin to understand the implications.

[shanti]

25. thank you!

for bringing that up - DWB, something most wp have no clue about.

[noonwitch]

17. Is this a change to the law?

I always thought that this was within the power of the police to begin with. My parents always warned us of exactly this scenario when they lectured us about hanging out with the "bad" kids.

This exact scenario happened with my cousin, recently. He was in a car with a bunch of kids and one of them had a very small amount of weed on him. They all got arrested, after hving been pulled over for a moving violation, and the police figured out who the weed belonged to and charged that person, and released my cousin and the other kids.

[shanti]

26. just watch

this will be the next "anti-drug" commercial.

[htuttle]

18. Unless the drugs are in...

...Rush Limbaugh's pocket, of course. Then there will be no arrests at all.

[loudnclear]

20. Keep on thiking: "Saddam has been caught" think nothing else

Watch Iraq and the WMDs that we will turn up. Stop! Don't think about anythin else, especially about how your own freedoms are being derailed and taken away.

This is the kind of information that the public need thrown in their faces. Wonder how Rush feels about this. Just think, they might have arrested Rush as he gave a ride to O'Reilly or Hannity. Wouldn't that have been sweet?