The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) ‘s Volusia/Flagler chapter is celebrating the ACLU’s 100th birthday with an essay contest open to all students, with a $500 prize and publication of the winning essay in FlaglerLive.
Fourth Amendment
5th Amendment Extends to iPhone Passcode, Court Rules, Denying Police Access to Defendant’s Phone
The ruling by a panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal in a 2018 Alachua County robbery case came after two other state appellate courts came to different conclusions about forcing defendants to supply passcodes to unlock cell phones.
Saint Kavanaugh
Whether Kavanaugh was confirmed or not is irrelevant: whoever’s next might be less personally sleazy, more temperamentally amoebic, but judicially? Same shill, different name.
Cops’ Stop and Frisk Is Cut Back. Crime Doesn’t Spike. It Tumbles.
Police have radically cut back their controversial use of stop-and-frisk policies in New York. To the surprise of some, crime didn’t spike, but tumbled yet again.
Cops Aren’t Under Siege.
Civilians and Liberties Are.
It’s a widely accepted but dangerous myth: that cops are under siege, handcuffed by “new restrictions.” The reality is the opposite, with more unbridled and brutal policing than we care to admit.
Can You Be Punished For Refusing DUI Test? 2 Highest Courts About to Decide.
Sept. 1 arguments before the Florida court on the question may be made moot by a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, expected in June, on the same issue. U.S. Justices were skeptical of breath tests.
Profiling By Computer in Florida: What Algorithmic Injustice Looks Like in Broward
Courtrooms are using computer programs to predict who will be a future criminal, informing decisions from bail to sentencing. Meant to be fairer than human biases, one such program in Florida is particularly likely to falsely flag black defendants as future criminals, wrongly labeling them this way at almost twice the rate as white defendants.
License for Probable Cause: Justices Rule You May Be Pulled Over For Any Visible Tag Issue
Florida Justices, in a 5-2 decision, rejected an appeal from a driver stopped by Orlando police because a tag light and wires were hanging over the license plate on a vehicle he was driving.
Sheriff Applauds New Law Regulating Police Authority to Seize Cash and Property
“Civil asset forfeiture” is a controversial practice that gives police authority to seize cash, cars, homes or pother property suspected of use in a crime even absent an arrest. Florida just reformed the law to make forfeiture more difficult and accountable.
From a Speeding Stop to an Accusation of Rioting at Flagler Jail: Dustin Singleton’s Spiral
Dustin Singleton, 35, was accused of inciting a riot at the Flagler County Jail Tuesday, a 2nd degree felony, after he refused orders to go to his bunk. He was serving 30 days on a misdemeanor probation violation over a minor pot possession.
