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Motorcyclist Wins Taping Case Against State Police
stevegee58 writes "Slashdot readers may recall the case of a Maryland motorcyclist (Anthony Graber) arrested and charged with wiretapping violations (a felony) when he recorded his interaction with a Maryland State Trooper. Today, Judge Emory A. Pitt threw out the wiretapping charges against Graber, leaving only his traffic violations to be decided on his October 12 trial date. 'The judge ruled that Maryland's wire tap law allows recording of both voice and sound in areas where privacy cannot be expected. He ruled that a police officer on a traffic stop has no expectation of privacy.' A happy day for freedom-loving Marylanders and Americans in general."
Anyone know if the Obama administration attempted to sway the outcome of this in any way, amicus curiae for example? If not, I find that rather surprising; I can totally picture the Feds wanting to prevent individuals from revealing what goes down during arrests. Then again, I suppose they're confident that they've the other end of the equation covered: their long-term plans to 'protect' us from Chinese Red Army hack3rz trying to bring down our oh-so-vulnerable intarwebz are far more likely an end-run [around the First Amendment] in disguise...
A happy day for freedom-loving Marylanders and Americans in general.
But a sad loss for power tripping pigs.
Pigs. Cute. How very 70's revolutionary of you. Are you wearing bellbottoms, or do you always talk like some dumbass caricature of the Weathermen?
I think this ruling is fantastic, because I think it properly rolls back police power. But I also think that people that consider cops "pigs" are morons. There are good cops and bad cops, and there are far more of the former than the later. I'm a staunch advocate of minimal government and self defense, and I've even gone to court to (successfully) fight a traffic ticket, but I'd hate to live in a society without police.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
I always thought "activist judge" meant someone who ignores law and/or MAKES law (promotes self to a legislator, not just a judge).
I hate to pick on Sonia Sotomayor, but she's the first example that springs to mind. Some firefighters took a test in order to achieve a higher-level promotion. Some of the white guys passed, but none of the black guys so the black guys sued, claiming the test was racist. Current Law says the test must be demonstrated to have a bias, due to its content. Mrs. Sotomayor decided to ignore that law and made her own determination that "because no black guys passed" that must prove the test is racist, despite no evidence in the written pages.
An activist judge. MAKING the law instead of enforcing what the Legislature actually wrote on paper. Her decision was later overturned.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
There have been a great number of interesting studies that show that clear and well-known rules, no matter how nonsensical and arbitrary they are, have a calming psychological effect
Of course they do. There are other things that have a "calming psychological effect": drugs, lobotomies, totalitarian regimes, etc. That's not a good thing.
In my country (Germany)
Yes, and you just about summed up what's been wrong with Germany for centuries: instead of taking personal responsibility and dealing with uncertainty, Germans want to have things spelled out for them as rules they can follow blindly and without having to think for themselves.
So if you want to create a society of permanently stressed-out people, then by all means continue pushing for your proposal.
Most human beings on this planet live with uncertainty and need to accept consequences of poor personal choices; it's the normal state of humanity and it doesn't make people unusually stressed out. It is high time that Germans rid themselves of their insane need for certainty, orderliness, and rules, and start living with risk, uncertainty, and personal responsibility.
Implying that the rest of the world would be better off adopting the German mentality, on the other hand, is ridiculous in light of Germany's history.