 |
| Host Jon Stewart in the studio of The Daily Show in 2004 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
America, as you know it, no longer exists as we are now officially a police state. Americans have lost the majority of our rights - like civil rights, privacy rights, and just about everything else they could take. All our rights have slowly eroded since 9/11 out of the fear of terrorism.
Police now possess sweeping, authoritarian, unlimited, absolute powers to do whatever they like to you, your spouse, your family, your children, your friends because it is all at the discretion of the police. If a cop is having a bad day then expect yours to get a lot worse too because there is nothing to stop him.
A couple of years ago, the Supreme Court decided that if a warrant is incorrect or not even valid it's fine for police to still arrest and strip search an American citizen. The high court decided this is not a violation of your Fourth Amendment rights even when the police are wrong.
What these two rulings from the Supreme Court amount to is that police really no longer require a warrant to arrest anyone. Why should they when this court is willing to support anything they do carte blanche? Clearly, America is on the wrong path in more ways than any of us could have imagined a few years ago.
The Supreme Court Justices are supposed to protect our civil liberties not take them away from us. Yet, here they sit, creating a ruling that did just that. Police no longer require a valid reason to pull over anyone and arrest and strip search them.
A police officer with a bad attitude, as evidenced by the military grade pepper spray used against peaceful protesters at the U.C. Davis campus, is just such an example of excess. If you don't believe it, just take into account there are 700,000 people arrested every year for minor offences not deserving of arrest yet they do get arrested and then strip searched.
Justice Kennedy, known as the swing vote on the court, wrote the decision. The questions he asked were not only insensitive but crude as well. Kennedy was under the mistaken impression that the average citizen arrested for something stupid like jaywalking or as a peaceful protester would be thankful to get strip searched. Kennedy thought they would feel safer in jail as they would not have to worry about drugs or weapons getting smuggled into the jail via someone's anus.
It gets worse, Justice Kennedy actually believes that the average arrested citizen would be insulted if they were not strip searched as that would indicate prejudice and discrimination on the part of the police. Does any of this sound like dementia to you? Do we have a sanity test for Supreme Court Justices?
If we don't, perhaps it's time we enact one. Certainly, we must place a limit on age or a term limit on the court. Several of these Justices are so decrepit mentally that they should be retired, yet this is a lifetime appointment.
Jon Stewart made the salient comment in response to Kennedy's excessive fear of what goes in jails, "It's like regular people drive around, hoping to get picked up just to smuggle drugs and weapons into the jails."
Related post: Obama and Supreme Court Order Strip Searches For Minor Offences Too, Impeach Them All
This first video is the edited summary. The other two video clips are the extended interviews so if you want to hear the full interview just skip down to the last two clips. Tom Goldstein has argued before the Supreme Court, an elite group of attorneys who specialize in this endeavor, for 24 times now. He's a smart pleasant guy and worth the listen.
Tom Goldstein
Law professor Thomas Goldstein believes that it takes a fair amount of humility to be a Supreme Court justice because, otherwise, one can get out of control.
Exclusive - Tom Goldstein Extended Interview Pt. 1
In this exclusive, unedited interview, SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein discusses the Supreme Court's Affordable Care Act hearings and the details of his strip search case.
Exclusive - Tom Goldstein Extended Interview Pt. 2
In this exclusive interview, Thomas Goldstein discusses Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of the County of Burlington, his Supreme Court strip search case.
Subscribe in a reader to A Truth Journal* Check out Dennys News Politics Comedy Science Arts & Food - a place where all my other 20 blogs link so you can choose from among the latest posts all in one place. A free to read online newspaper from independent journalist blogger Denny Lyon. *
*** THANKS for visiting, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, enjoy bookmarking this post on your favorite social site, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!
