more on When police ask your name, you must give it, Supreme Court says

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Stewart, William C (Bill), RTSLS" <billstewart () att com>
Date: June 21, 2004 10:15:07 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net, ip () v2 listbox com
Cc: bill () scannell org
Subject: RE: [IP] When police ask your name, you must give it, Supreme 
Court says


http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-5554.ZS.html

While the Hiibel decision was certainly appalling,
and is yet another example of why we need to replace Rehnquist
with somebody who understands and likes the Constitution,
it's not as broad as the AP headline implies.

Nevada has a state law requiring you to identify yourself
if a policeman demands it, and if you're in a state with a similar law,
that law might be constitutional, and about 20 states have them.
The Nevada law doesn't require you to produce documentation of identity,
and the courts have found such laws often unconstitutionally
void for vagueness in the past.  However, as the majority opinion says,
"The present case begins where our prior cases left off.",
and my reading of that is that the majority opinion is
definitely extending the power to make such laws to the states,
grabbing territory that might have previously been a gray area.
(That's the sort of thing that right-wing Republicans
and Strict Constructionists call "Judicial Activism",
and they view it as bad when their political opponents do it.)

One of the many things wrong with this decision is that,
while the Nevada law narrowly requires you to identify yourself,
but does not require you to produce documentation,
the police officer who accosted Hiibel did demand it,
and the court doesn't seem to view that distinction as important.
It's not clear to me that refusal to cooperate with this unlawful demand
constitutes "willfully resisting" under the statute that Hiibel was
actually charged under, but I'm not a lawyer and haven't seen the
lower court cases, only the Supreme Court's opinions.

papersplease.org, Hiibel's site, is a bit overloaded right now.

                        Bill Stewart, bill.stewart () pobox com


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