bill of rights

Kansas Supreme Court Rules Passing Sobriety Test Is Meaningless

"Roadside sobriety tests can be used only to gather evidence to convict a driver, not to exonerate him, according to the Kansas Supreme Court. The decision came down in the case of Bruno Edgar, who was stopped at a driver's license roadblock on July 29, 2007. The officer decided to conduct three of the standard field sobriety tests. Edgar passed the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, passed the one-leg stand and 'did fine' on the nine-step walk-and-turn test. The officer then told Edgar he had no choice but to submit to a preliminary breath test (PBT) and that he had no right to consult an attorney regarding the test. Edgar failed and was convicted of DUI." Continue reading →

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NC lawmaker: Women should ‘duct tape’ nipples to stay out of jail

"Republican state Rep. Tim Moore says that women can protect themselves from a new law that makes baring female breasts illegal by simply applying duct tape to their nipples. On Wednesday, House Judiciary Committee C approved House Bill 34, which makes it a Class H felony to purposefully expose 'private parts' for the 'purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire.' The bill expands the state’s definition of 'private parts' to include a woman’s 'nipple, or any portion of the areola.' Republican state Rep. Rayne Brown told lawmakers that she was co-sponsoring the bill because activists had held a topless women’s rights rally last summer." Continue reading →

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Ohio Court Upholds Police Entry Into Home Over Failure To Signal Turn

"The Ohio Court of Appeals on Friday upheld the police use of a battering ram on the home of a suspect who failed to properly signal a turn. On December 12, 2011, Dayton Police Officers Michael Saylors and Randy Beane saw the gold Oldsmobile Intrigue belonging to Jeffrey Lam near the intersection of Hodapp and Lorain Avenues. While the officers were following Lam to his home at 645 Creighton Avenue, they noted he allegedly failed to use his turn signal. Lam ran out of his car into his home and locked the door. After failing to kick in the door, the officers used a battering ram and knocked it down. In the course of a search of the house for 'officer safety,' drugs were found." Continue reading →

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10 Reasons The U.S. Is No Longer The Land Of The Free

"Even as we pass judgment on countries we consider unfree, Americans remain confident that any definition of a free nation must include their own — the land of free. Yet, the laws and practices of the land should shake that confidence. In the decade since Sept. 11, 2001, this country has comprehensively reduced civil liberties in the name of an expanded security state. While each new national security power Washington has embraced was controversial when enacted, they are often discussed in isolation. But they don’t operate in isolation. They form a mosaic of powers under which our country could be considered, at least in part, authoritarian." Continue reading →

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WA Dems Sponsor Bill Allowing Police To Search Gunowners’ Homes Once Per Year

"A Washington state bill sponsored by liberal Democrats contained a little-noticed provision that would have called for the police to have the right to search private citizens’ home once per year if they own certain types of guns. In other words, kiss the Fourth Amendment goodbye. Liberal lawmakers behind the bill claim they have no knowledge of the provision – which, of course, begs the question as to how the provision got into the bill in the first place." Continue reading →

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Drones not just for foreign attacks, will fill up the U.S. skies

"Suddenly drones are everywhere -- not in the skies over the United States, as they will be by the thousands in a few years, and not just hovering over foreign battlefields to strike terror in the heart of al-Qaida -- but as the focus of debate in the U.S. Congress and elsewhere. Inevitably, the U.S. Supreme Court will be asked to determine whether the use of extrajudicial lethal force against those marked as terrorists posing an imminent threat, including U.S. citizens, is constitutional. The court also will be asked to determine how intrusive drones can be when flown over domestic air space by government, law enforcement and private companies." Continue reading →

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Guantánamo commander admits listening devices eavesdropped on lawyer meetings with clients

"The battered credibility of the Guantánamo trials has been further dented by revelations of hidden microphones, intelligence service interference with court proceedings and protests from lawyers who say the US military is preventing a proper defence of the alleged organisers of the 9/11 attacks. In recent days, the commander of the Guantánamo prison, Colonel John Bogdan, was forced to admit on the witness stand that secret listening devices disguised as smoke detectors were installed in the cell where lawyers met their clients, and that he knew nothing about them." Continue reading →

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1954 U.S. Comic Book Moral Panic Was Based On Fraudulent Data

"Behavioral problems among teenagers and preteens can be blamed on the media marketed to them – that was the topic of televised public hearings held by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1954. The hearings, which resulted in the decimation of what was an enormous comic book industry, had been inspired by the book 'Seduction of the Innocent,' by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, based on his own case studies. Wertham’s personal archives, however, show that the doctor revised children’s ages, distorted their quotes, omitted other causal factors and in general “played fast and loose with the data he gathered on comics.'” Continue reading →

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Police Chief Admits: Our Guns are Offensive Weapons Used to Commit Aggression

"'A gun is not a defensive weapon,' insists Emeryville, California Police Chief Ken James, who claims that his mind, which most likely boggles easily, is 'boggled' by the idea that guns could serve a defensive purpose. 'That is a myth. A gun is an offensive weapon used to intimidate and used to show power. Police officers do not carry a gun as a defensive weapon to defend themselves or their other [sic] officers. They carry a gun in order to do their job in a safe and effective manner, and face any oppositions [sic] that we may come upon.'" Continue reading →

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