Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
They've been given way too much power over the last couple of decades. I still remember back in the late 1970's and 1980's when a cop could NOT search your car or even search you. Then the Supreme Court made a ruling allowing it to happen (against the bill of rights protection from unreasonable search and seizure), and in my opinion it's all been downhill since. All in the name of the "War On Drugs". And of course now at the airport: the "War On Terrorism"
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Actually that came about in 1968 and had nothing to do with RR's "War on Drugs" or GWB's "War On Terrorism"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_v._Ohio
Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court which held that the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures is not violated when a police officer stops a suspect on the street and searches him without probable cause to arrest, if the police officer has a reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime.
For their own protection, police may perform a quick surface search of the person?s outer clothing for weapons if they have reasonable suspicion that the person stopped is armed. This reasonable suspicion must be based on "specific and articulable facts" and not merely upon an officer's hunch. This permitted police action has subsequently been referred to in short as a "stop and frisk," or simply a "Terry stop". The Terry standard was later extended to temporary detentions of persons in vehicles, known as traffic stops.
The rationale behind the Supreme Court decision revolves around the understanding that, as the opinion notes, "the exclusionary rule has its limitations." The meaning of the rule is to protect persons from unreasonable searches and seizures aimed at gathering evidence, not searches and seizures for other purposes (like prevention of crime or personal protection of police officers).