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Monday, April 30, 2007
Law - U.S. Supreme Court rules on high speed chases
Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog has an entry just posted titled " A flat new rule on high-speed chases." It begins:
Though two Justices tried hard in separate opinions to ease the impact of the Supreme Court's rulng Monday on high-speed police chases, the fact remains that the main opinion had the unqualified support of five Justices and did lay down a hard-and-fast constitutional rule. Here is how the Court phrases the rule it established: "A police officer's attempt to terminate a dangerous high-speed car chase that threatens the lives of innocent bystanders does not violate the Fourth Amendment, even when it places the fleeing motorist at risk of serious injury or death." Given the inherent dangerousness of most high-speed chases, this flat rule -- the "Scott v . Harris" rule, as it may come to be known -- appears to validate as "reasonable" any intentional police tactic of ending the chase by causing a wreck. The only apparent limitation on the choice of any specific tactic is the option that police have to adopt, or not to adopt, it.Scott v. Harris is the case with the attached videotape I posted about earlier today ("Inclusions in Court Opinions".)
It turns out that Marty Lederman of SCOTUSblog has also posted an entry on the inclusion - access it here.
Here is a list of some other obervations, as collected by Howard Bashman of How Appealing.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 30, 2007 02:32 PM
Posted to General Law Related