Showing posts with label rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rights. Show all posts

PCN Editorial: The Surveillance State Is Illegal

Court gives NSA thumbs down.     A U.S. appeals court's ruling that the National Security Agency's metadata collection was illegal turned the spy state upside down in almost 100 pages of common sense and solid understanding of the rights Americans have under the law. It shows, once again, that both common sense and a respect for the rights      ... MORE

Bill Of Rights Doesn’t Amount To Much In A Cop Culture

by John W. Whitehead. Police officers are more likely to be struck by lightning than be held financially accountable for their actions.—Law professor Joanna C. Schwartz (paraphrased) If you can be kicked, punched, tasered, shot, intimidated, harassed, stripped, searched, brutalized, terrorized, wrongfully arrested, and even killed by a police     ... MORE

Entitled To Loot: Why Are There Riots In Baltimore?

by Michael Hurd.    Nothing happens in a vacuum. It’s easy enough to call the rioters in Baltimore “thugs;” and it’s entirely true. But when they take the actions they do, they are acting on ideas. Personally, they are acting on their own impulses and emotions. But even their own, thuggish, range-of-the-moment impulses and emotions rest on ideas.     ... MORE

More Citizens Refusing to Answer Questions at Checkpoints

by Philip Hodges.   We’re told that we have a right to remain silent. How ironic it is that these days we get arrested for doing just that – remaining silent. These particular checkpoints are run by the Border Patrol, but they’re nowhere near the Mexico-U.S. border. They’re within 100 miles of the border. So, the people they end up stopping and  ... MORE

The Proper Way To Make Mistakes In Drug Policing

by Radley Balko.    A couple in Owego, New York was recently wrongly targeted by local police, who had apparently mistaken them for some pretty big time drug distributers. From local TV news outlet WNBF: Steven Dunlap says he was pulled over by police while he was on his way to meet some friends for pizza. He says they took him into custody at   ... MORE

Walter E Williams: What's Gone Wrong With Democracy?

Majority rule can be dangerous.  The Economist magazine recently published "What's gone wrong with Democracy ... and what can be done to revive it?" The suggestion is that democracy is some kind of ideal for organizing human conduct. That's a popular misconception. The ideal way to organize human conduct is to create a system that maximizes  ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: Unchecked Checkpoints

Court demands blind obedience to petty harassment. There are two ways to view the video of Richard Rynearson's March 2010 encounter with U.S. Border Patrol agents at an immigration checkpoint in Uvalde County, Texas. Authoritarians will say Rynearson should have been more cooperative, while libertarians will say the agents should   ... MORE

Pop Quiz: How Many Constitutional Rights Have We Lost?

What politicians have done to promise of America.    This post explains the liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights – the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution – and provides a scorecard on the extent of the loss of each right. The 1st Amendment protects speech, religion, assembly and the press. The Supreme Court    ... MORE

Bob Livingston: Tyranny And America's Moral Decline

Pushing the collective agenda.   Whenever government establishes special “rights” or “privileges” for a perceived aggrieved class (also called a minority class), it does so at the expense of the rights of others. It inevitably leads to law, logic and reason being tied into undecipherable knots, contributes to the power and collectivism of government,  ... MORE

NBC Miami: A Legal Way Around DUI Checkpoints?

You may not want to roll down your window.   DUI checkpoints are used by multiple South Florida law enforcement agencies to try to keep the streets clear of intoxicated drivers. But, a local attorney says there’s a legal way around the checkpoints for any driver, while prosecutors say not so fast. “Normally what they look for is:   ... MORE

Supreme Court Upholds Auto Stop With No Traffic Violation

by Marjorie Cohn. Ignorance of the law is no excuse -- that is, unless you're a police officer.  For the first time, in December, the Supreme Court upheld a traffic stop even where there was no traffic violation. The court, in Heien v. North Carolina, continued its steady erosion of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and    ... MORE

VIDEO: Immigration Checkpoint Refusal Gone Wrong


The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.  --Edmund Burke

DUI Checkpoint: A Tactic To Avoid Warrantless Searches

Featuring the DUI Flyer video.    Is a DUI checkpoint a violation of fourth amendment rights? Interpretations vary, but some claim it amounts to a warrantless search, and they feel their rights are being violated every time they submit to one. YouTuber HONORYOUROATH says there’s an additional concern. He worries that, even if a driver   ... MORE