We may get through this with some rights left intact after all -- but I'm not ready for a party yet. From the LA Times:
The Supreme Court put a new limit on police searches of cars Tuesday, saying that "countless individuals guilty of nothing more serious than a traffic violation" have had their vehicles searched in violation of their rights.
In a 5-4 decision, the justices set aside a 1981 opinion that had given police broad authority to search cars whenever they made an arrest.
Instead, the justices said that an arresting officer could search a vehicle only if weapons were potentially in reach of the suspect or if there was reason to believe that the car contained evidence related to the arrest. For example, if the driver was arrested in a drug crime, the car could be searched for drugs.
Justice John Paul Stevens, speaking for the court, said that merely arresting a driver does not "provide a police entitlement" to search the vehicle without a warrant.
Considering the way police have been running amok the past few years, let's see if this sticks. It would be nice, wouldn't it?
Further thoughts: I'm thinking back over all the reports of Taser deaths and police brutality involving Tasers -- and from the reports, police are much to willing to use them under dubious circumstances -- and other stories that show police departments -- which, quite honestly, are not strongholds of civil rights protections, as I can attest from my own experience -- out of control, and it occurs to me that this is an unlooked-for trickle-down effect from the Bush administration's abuse of power, and another reason that Obama has to order investigations of those abuses: when the executive branch is beyond the reach of the law, no one is safe.
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