Tuesday, October 11, 2011

How Can This Possibly Pass 4th Amendment Muster?

To all of you who thought Jerry Brown would be a civil libertarian's best friend, I remind you that a statist will never be such:
California Gov. Jerry Brown is vetoing legislation requiring police to obtain a court warrant to search the mobile phones of suspects at the time of any arrest...

Brown’s veto message abdicated responsibility for protecting the rights of Californians and ignored calls from civil liberties groups and this publication to sign the bill — saying only that the issue is too complicated for him to make a decision about. He cites a recent California Supreme Court decision upholding the warrantless searches of people incident to an arrest. In his brief message, he also doesn’t say whether it’s a good idea or not.
Searches incident to arrest should not be allowed to become fishing expeditions.

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