The Fourth Amendment is dead in PA. The copfuks are ecstatic that they can intimidate drivers and search the vehicles of all citizens without cause. The noose continues to tighten. It really is us versus them. Know your enemy.
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules Cops No Longer Need Warrants to Search Vehicles
..heedlessly contravenes over 225 years of unyielding protection against unreasonable search and seizure..”
Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
April 30, 2014
Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court has ruled police officers in the Commonwealth are no longer required to obtain a warrant prior to searching a vehicle, a decision that essentially overturns the protections enumerated in the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and in Pennsylvania’s own state constitution.
San Francisco Police searching a vehicle after a stop in 2008. / Photo: Drew Stephens, Wikimedia Commons
Yesterday, Justice Seamus McCaffery issued the court’s opinion, stemming from a 2010 Philadelphia police department traffic stop of a man for having dark tinted windows, who was later found to be hiding two pounds of marijuana under the hood of his vehicle.
In a 4-2 vote, the court decided “the prerequisite for a warrantless search of a motor vehicle is probable cause to search.”
Previously, as explained by Lancaster Online, police were not allowed to search a vehicle unless a driver consented, “or if the illegal substances were in plain view.”
“Now, based on the opinion, it only takes reasonable probable cause for an officer to go ahead with the search without a warrant,” writes Brett Hambright.
Not surprisingly, police are ecstatic.
“It is a ruling that helps law enforcement as they continue to find people in possession of illegal drugs,” said New Holland Police Lt. Jonathan Heisse, reports Hambright.
However, in her dissenting opinion, Justice Debra McCloskey Todd rightly noted the ruling “heedlessly contravenes over 225 years of unyielding protection against unreasonable search and seizure which our people have enjoyed as their birthright.” Todd also called the decision “diametrically contrary to the deep historical and legal traditions” of Pennsylvania, according to Associated Press.
Several defense attorneys also view the court’s ruling as a monumental government overreach that could negatively impact the normal, day-to-day lives of ordinary citizens.
“It’s an expanding encroachment of government power,” Jeffrey Conrad, a defense attorney with the law firm Clymer Musser & Conrad told Hambright today regarding the court’s final opinion. “It’s a protection we had two days ago, that we don’t have today. It’s disappointing from a citizens’ rights perspective.”
“I am concerned,” another defense attorney, Christopher Patterson, expressed to Hambright, “that we are on a slippery slope that will eliminate personal privacy and freedom in the name of expediency for law enforcement.”
Another lawyer clarified that the ruling does not grant police the authority to search vehicles arbitrarily.
“This does not mean that they may search every vehicle they stop,” Mike Winters with the law firm McMahon & Winters said. “They must still develop probable cause before they are permitted to search your vehicle without a warrant.”
So, with three young sons in PA, does this make you want to move? To change how you act, behave, drive? Where does the final tipping point lie?
Been giving this a lot of thought lately, esp. knowing how my ancestors faced the same questions in Germany / Russia. They were strong enough to leave everything behind and get out; will we be able to today?
My son was pulled over a few months ago for absolutely no reason and the copfuk wanted to search his car. Kevin told him no. Now the copfuk will make up some probable cause bullshit excuse. Then the copfuks will plant something in order to meet their revenue quota.
Where would I go?
I was thinking that — it’s only a matter of time before cops start planting drugs, guns, whatever to incriminate people they don’t like.
We’ve talked a lot here about ‘freedom’ in the States and the state rankings. We even have people who have moved (Wyoming Mike, Axel) to enjoy greater freedom. At least that’s a little easier than moving overseas some place.
What you do could translate to a number of universities and private institutions, though they’ll lack the “Ivy League” status you have now. Culture shock might be an issue, though.
Pennsylvania is one of the less awful eastern states – but nothing in the east, south of Vermont/NH, has the slightest appeal to me. Maybe you should see if Tuck is hiring. 🙂 Or any good university west of PA, excluding California.
Why doesn’t the HNIC just make it official and burn the Constitution at the next State Of The Union address? The Constitution simply doesn’t matter any more. Not one bit. I think we should stop pretending it does.
“In a 4-2 vote, the court decided “the prerequisite for a warrantless search of a motor vehicle is probable cause to search.” ———- from the article
Four fucking traitors decide the fate of 13 MILLION Pennsylvanians.
Shit is fucked up and shit.
The bright side is that they won’t “hate us for our freedom” anymore, since we don’t have much of it, not that it matters. They now hate us for our safety. That can be Rand Paul’s mantra as he pushes his new “Stand with Israel” bill.
All troublemakers (see TBPers) have a path paved to Gitmo..FWIW…I call a bottom bunk.
Supreme Court green lights detention of Americans
Lets stand arrests of ‘anyone viewed as a troublemaker’
A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court means the federal government now has an open door to “detain as a threat to national security anyone viewed as a troublemaker,” according to critics.
The high court this week refused to review an appeals court decision that said the president and U.S. military can arrest and indefinitely detain individuals.
The firm of William J. Olson, P.C., which filed a friend-of-the court brief asking the court to step in, noted that not a single justice dissented from the denial of the request for review.
“The court ducked, having no appetite to confront both political parties in order to protect the citizens from military detention,” the legal team said in a statement to WND. “The government has won, creating a tragic moment for the people – and what will someday be viewed as an embarrassment for the court.”
WND reported when the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act were adopted and later challenged in court.
The controversial provision authorizes the military, under presidential authority, to arrest, kidnap, detain without trial and hold indefinitely American citizens thought to “represent an enduring security threat to the United States.”
Journalist Chris Hedges was among the plaintiffs charging the law could be used to target journalists who report on terror-related issues.
As SSS will attest , since he’s wont to cite black robed supreme thugs in any debate as the final authority , Federal judges are totally unbiased and apolitical…don’t laugh its true. well maybe not totally true, but they are in most cases at least 50% unbiased and 50% corporate bitchez. .
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_APPEALS_JUDGES_CONFLICTS_OF_INTEREST?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-04-28-00-05-22
Report: Appeals court judges violated ethics laws
By SAM HANANEL
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a dozen federal appeals court judges have violated federal conflict-of-interest laws over the past three years, throwing into doubt decisions in 26 cases, according to an analysis from a watchdog group.
The Center for Public Integrity, in a report being released Monday, found 24 cases in which judges ruled despite owning stock in a company appearing before them. In two other cases, the judges had financial ties to law firms representing one of the parties.
When informed of the conflicts, all 16 judges sent letters to the parties involved in the cases, disclosing the violations. Several judges said their failure to withdraw from the cases was an oversight, the report said. Some of the judges had conflicts in more than one case.
In one 2011 case, Judge James Hill of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta was part of a three-judge panel that affirmed a lower court verdict in favor of health care giant Johnson & Johnson in a lawsuit over a malfunctioning medication pump. At the time of the decision, Hill owned as much as $100,000 in Johnson & Johnson stock, the report found.
The conflicts took place despite a new policy adopted by the Judicial Conference of the United States in 2006 that requires all federal courts to conduct automated screenings to help avoid potential conflicts of interest. Judges must disclose a list of their financial holdings and each court is required to screen for conflicts on a regular basis. But the database is only as good as the information provided by judges.
More than half of all appellate judges own corporate stock, according to the repor
and what’s the main reason cited, the “war on drugs”
so the 4th ammendment must be eviscerated to keep stoners from getting the munchies.
so SSS, is the war on (some) drugs worth saying bye-bye to the 4th ammendment?
more super, duper gayness..
Proof of mental illness amongst badge boys…exhibit A
“The vast majority of our Duties and Functions are performed with only our conscience Watching and Directing us,” Brown explained in a full-page advertisement for his re-election campaign. “Those in the law enforcement profession have complete power over you, your life, your family, your loved ones, your rights, your freedom, your future and everything precious to life. From the very word of a Law Enforcement Office [sic], all those Precious Things of Life hang.”
As the acknowledged author of the advertisement, Sheriff Brown bears sole responsibility for both its candidly totalitarian content and its eccentric use of capitalization.
It’s the dogs that scare me. If you see a cop approach your car with a dog, you’re probably fucked.
False alerts. A twitching pinky, a slight tug on the leash, a whispered command ….. and the dogs are trained to go ape-shit … thus giving the copfuk the authority to detain you, search you, etc.
stucky,
right on, i love dogs but i don’t shed a tear when a dogfuk gets “vicked”
@Admin – Kansas City, Kansas has good schools, a decent economy, low(ish) taxes and most of the amenities of the East Coast.
Specifically, the Overland Park/Leawood areas.
Just don’t move into Wyandotte County.
Like I said before, all the complaints I’ve heard for years from minorities about police harassment will be understood by all of us.
When people ignored it happening to 1 group of citizens, the only question is when it becomes the norm. The harassment was economic, minorities are more likely to be poor, but now that all segments of the US population are going broke, the boot needs to come down on more folks.
I’ve had white people tell me I was insane saying cops would start treating them the same way. They’d say, “I’m not doing anything wrong like those people, I’m not a minority”. When I give them examples or poor whites being treated like vermin, they excuse that also. I can sort of understand their cognitive dissonance as they feel closer to being elites.
I’ve had wealthier minorities say the same, thinking their pittance of paper wealth makes them different. My reply to all of these ignorant fucks, white & non, is, “You are a minority, you aren’t rich”. They don’t & won’t get it until they or 1 of their kids is tazed or beaten.
It’s a rich vs. poor dynamic, same as since the beginning of time. They’ll impose travel restrictions later & withhold passports for owing taxes soon, especially if the dollar starts to slide. Anyone notice the 1st glimpses of hyperinflation?
Who was the three males