Saturday, May 14, 2011

The Meaningless Fourth Amendment (At Least In One State)

That would be Indiana, where the State Supreme Court has just given the police carte blanche to go into any home they damn well please to, without a warrant. Hoosiers have no right to be secure in their own homes against government searches. They cannot close the door to the cops. All they can do is try to sue them afterwards.

So if you live in Indiana and the police shows up on your porch and say that they want to look around your home, you can no longer decline their polite request to root around in your underwear drawer with their filthy hands. Oh, you can say the word "no", but that will be as effective as saying that word to the average house cat, for like the cat, the cops can do what they want.

But hey, if you don't like that the cops just tromped around through your domicile, you are free to come up with ten grand or so to retain a lawyer to sue them. And maybe, in five or six years, you might even get nominal damages.

(H/T)

6 comments:

  1. Indiana does everything ass-backward. That "Hoosier" tag is for real.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This dork had to have had a civics fail or maybe some lobsterbacks need to visit his house, enter without permission!

    I can't believe the irrational pig headed thought process.


    Eck!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Two words: Exclusionary rule.

    At the federal level case law has long held that you don't have a right to resist an unlawful entry into your property by police, just a right to have any evidence gathered as a result of said unlawful entry thrown out in court (and of course the right to file a lawsuit over it). Thus why none of the FBI agents who killed Randy Weaver's child were ever brought to trial. It appears that the Indiana Supreme Court basically just brought Indiana law in sync with Federal law. Which of course basically establishes a police state, but (shrug). The majority of Americans don't seem to mind or care, indeed, even seem to support the notion, believing that a police state will make them "safer". Just as many citizens of the former Soviet Union pine for the days of Communist dictatorship. So it goes...

    - Badtux the Sovok Penguin

    ReplyDelete
  4. Idaho attempted to try Lon Horiuchi, the guy who shot Randy Weaver's wife, on manslaughter charges, but the Feds got the case kicked to Federal court and then dismissed. Horiuchi's fingerprints were all over the Waco mess, as well.

    Horiuchi paid no price for his bloodthirstiness. The people at the Murrah Federal Building might have wished otherwise.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am hoping the ACLU is gearing up for this, but I'm not holding my breath.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Welcome to the WORLD OF MITCH DANIELS! He appointed the idiot that wrote the majority opinion and this is nothing more than the disregard Daniels has shown for all who aren't part of urban/rich/connected/private school clique of friends and allies.

    God Help Us...

    All The Best,
    Frank W. James

    ReplyDelete

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