suboptimal information

Nice to see a decent SCOTUS decision

In Brendlin v. California it was nice to see SCOTUS kick back a decision in favor of the expansion of Fourth Amendment protections, for a change.

Despite recent decisions limiting bill of rights protections such as Morse v. Frederick (first amendment - limiting free speech for minors, so long as they stay in school) and Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada(fourth and fifth amendments - ruling that arrest for refusal to identify is reasonable and that forced self identification is not forced testimony), in Brendlin the court ruled that all parties in a stopped vehicle are, by the reasonable behavior of the average person, perceived to be seized and that no reasonable person would believe that stopped as such they have the completely clear an unfettered permission to depart and therefore are under Fourth Amendment protections.

While it does disturb me that the California Supreme Court overturned an apellate decision that the trial court erred when it denied a motion to suppress evidence obtained through an illegal search, I am encouraged to see that the SCOTUS decision overturning California’s decision was unanimous.  While W has done quite a number on most of the bill of rights, it’s nice to see that in at least this case the court decided in the favor of explicitly defining an expansion of the fourth amendment that had previously only been held in examples or non-specific opinions on fourth amendment cases.