Politics

FACT CHECK: Misfires on the campaign trail

AP - Politics - Thu, 2025-05-22 20:18
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rick Santorum says oil drillers in the Gulf of Mexico are being slammed by "worse and worse and worse" delays in getting federal approval even as gas prices go through the roof. Actually, the wait for permits is getting better and better. Newt Gingrich boasts that small donors are powering his Republican presidential campaign. In reality, one deep-pocketed financial angel and other big money people have been doing loads of heavy lifting, too....

FACT CHECK: Misfires on the campaign trail

AP - Politics - Thu, 2025-05-22 20:18
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rick Santorum says oil drillers in the Gulf of Mexico are being slammed by "worse and worse and worse" delays in getting federal approval even as gas prices go through the roof. Actually, the wait for permits is getting better and better. Newt Gingrich boasts that small donors are powering his Republican presidential campaign. In reality, one deep-pocketed financial angel and other big money people have been doing loads of heavy lifting, too....

FACT CHECK: Misfires on the campaign trail

AP - Politics - Thu, 2025-05-22 20:18
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rick Santorum says oil drillers in the Gulf of Mexico are being slammed by "worse and worse and worse" delays in getting federal approval even as gas prices go through the roof. Actually, the wait for permits is getting better and better. Newt Gingrich boasts that small donors are powering his Republican presidential campaign. In reality, one deep-pocketed financial angel and other big money people have been doing loads of heavy lifting, too....

New Haven Register: "Bill would let Connecticut towns seek search warrants to inspect properties"

FourthAmendment.com - News - Thu, 2025-05-22 20:18

New Haven Register: Bill would let Connecticut towns seek search warrants to inspect properties by Jordan Fenster:

A bill up for legislative review would grant municipalities the right to seek a search warrant if zoning officials believe there has been an ordinance violation.

The pending legislation, requested by state Rep. Susan Johnson, D-Windham, is the result of a state Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the right of citizens to, in the words of the court’s decision, “be free from unreasonable searches.”

In the case of the town of Bozrah v. Anne D. Chmurynski, town zoning official Thomas Weber had been asked to examine private property because, according to the court record, “he intended to inspect the property for ‘junk.’”

GPB News: "Welfare Drug Testing Bill Revised"

FourthAmendment.com - News - Thu, 2025-05-22 20:18

And the beat goes on:

GPB News: Welfare Drug Testing Bill Revised by Jeanne Bonner:

Georgia lawmakers are revising a bill that opponents say is almost certain to land in federal court. It would require welfare recipients to take a drug test before receiving benefits. Its sponsor says the measure would save taxpayers money but others say it’s unconstitutional.

Sen. John Albers, a Roswell Republican, is the bill’s sponsor. He modeled it on a Florida law, now blocked by a federal judge because it violates the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unlawful search.

When these clowns pass such bills, they just make money for the plaintiffs' civil rights bar that files the case in attorneys fees. They are clueless.

D.N.M.: Inventory must be in "good faith" and not a general rummaging

FourthAmendment.com - News - Thu, 2025-05-22 20:18

Inventory policy that allows the vehicle to go with somebody “immediately available,” not otherwise defined, does not require the police to allow somebody to be called and the police wait for that person to show up. The person essentially has to be there already. If the inventory is conducted in “good faith,” that’s enough. United States v. Reyes-Vencomo, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34141 (D. N.M. February 13, 2012):

The officers initiated the search in compliance with standardized police procedures and the requirement that the officers make a post-search notation regarding the decision to search adds little to the protections that the Fourth Amendment and Supreme Court precedent seeks to impose. The Fourth Amendment is satisfied so long as an officer conducts an inventory search in good faith. See United States v. Battle, 370 F.App'x at 430 (citing Colorado v. Bertine, 479 U.S. at 374). Holfelder and Ortega conducted an orderly inventory search, documenting and photographing the items in the vehicle as they went, and were not "general[ly] rummaging in order to discover incriminating evidence." United States v. Martinez, 512 F.3d at 1274. Holfelder explained that he understood the policy's purpose to be to protect the department and the driver's property, and nothing indicates that he was acting in bad faith. See United States v. Maraga, 76 F.App'x at 228 ("An impoundment must either be supported by probable cause, or be consistent with the police role as 'caretaker' of the streets and completely unrelated to an ongoing criminal investigation."); United States v. Lugo, 978 F.2d at 636 ("When the police acquire temporary custody of a vehicle, a warrantless inventory search of the vehicle does not offend Fourth Amendment principles so long as the search is made pursuant to 'standard police procedures' and for the purpose of 'protecting the car and its contents.'"). Failing to make a notation in the police report regarding the tow decision was a minor deviation from procedure, and an understandable one given the circumstances, and does not render the inventory search invalid.

[I had to go read these cases on good faith, and both appear to just be throw-away lines as to what the government's burden of proof is:

Battle: "Rather, he acted in good faith as he undertook to identify, secure and protect valuable property."

Bertine: "We conclude that here, as in Lafayette, reasonable police regulations relating to inventory procedures administered in good faith satisfy the Fourth Amendment, even though courts might as a matter of hindsight be able to devise equally reasonable rules requiring a different procedure."

So, don't see there being a "good faith exception" to inventory searches. Good faith inventory and not a rummaging is something that the government has to prove in every case.]

The Fall of Bo Xilai

Opinion Journal - Thu, 2025-05-22 20:18
The Communist Party purges a populist leader.


American Scene: Killer gets life without parole

GEORGIA

Killer gets life without parole; victim's wife now a suspect

DECATUR | A corporate engineer who fawned over a female subordinate was found guilty but mentally ill Thursday of fatally shooting the woman's husband in an ambush outside a suburban Atlanta preschool.

After a judge sentenced Hemy Neuman to ...

A political tip sheet for the rest of us

AP - Politics - Thu, 2025-05-22 20:18
A political tip sheet for the rest of us outside the Washington Beltway for Thursday, March 15, the Ides of March:...

A political tip sheet for the rest of us

AP - Politics - Thu, 2025-05-22 20:18
A political tip sheet for the rest of us outside the Washington Beltway for Thursday, March 15, the Ides of March:...

A political tip sheet for the rest of us

AP - Politics - Thu, 2025-05-22 20:18
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A political tip sheet for the rest of us outside the Washington Beltway, for Wednesday, March 28:...

A political tip sheet for the rest of us

AP - Politics - Thu, 2025-05-22 20:18
A political tip sheet for the rest of us outside the Washington Beltway for Thursday, March 15, the Ides of March:...

Obama campaign releases documentary on first term

AP - Politics - Thu, 2025-05-22 20:18
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Helped by Hollywood, President Barack Obama's campaign is releasing a 17-minute documentary that portrays the president as a resolute figure who confronted a massive economic downturn and the aftermath of the nation's war on terrorism with determination and a series of tough decisions....

Obama campaign releases documentary on first term

AP - Politics - Thu, 2025-05-22 20:18
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Helped by Hollywood, President Barack Obama's campaign is releasing a 17-minute documentary that portrays the president as a resolute figure who confronted a massive economic downturn and the aftermath of the nation's war on terrorism with determination and a series of tough decisions....

Obama campaign releases documentary on first term

AP - Politics - Thu, 2025-05-22 20:18
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Helped by Hollywood, President Barack Obama's campaign is releasing a 17-minute documentary that portrays the president as a resolute figure who confronted a massive economic downturn and the aftermath of the nation's war on terrorism with determination and a series of tough decisions....
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