Whipped Cream Difficulties

First, the Indiana Supreme Court ignores hundreds of years of common law and asserts that there is no right to resist illegal entry by the police. I didn’t write about that decision because it’s been well written about here, here, and here, all by people much smarter than I am.

Next, the United States Supreme Court decides, 8-1 (!), that the police can basically create their own “exigent circumstances” in order to justify entering anyone’s home without a warrant.

And now, the RIAA is pushing for legislation that would allow warrantless searches of CD and DVD manufacturing plants. Apparently, if the police actually had to go to the trouble of getting a warrant, people making bootleg discs would flush them down the toilet…

The American Civil Liberties Union questioned the constitutionality of the bill but so far has not opposed the measure because it said the bill appeared to be narrowly drawn.

Say what?

The RIAA argued that courts had carved out 4th Amendment exceptions already. So far, it said, warrantless searches have been allowed at such businesses as automobile junkyards and repair shops, mines, gun and liquor stores, nursing homes, massage parlors, pawn shops and wholesale fish dealers.

“wholesale fish dealers”?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 at 7:32 am and is filed under Clippings, Law, Stupid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.